The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
SUN JOURNAL • July 14, 2025
The Select Board plans to announce Thursday the critical need to construct an office and garage for the Parks and Recreation Department on Hosmer Lane. The flood of December 2023 caused an estimated $2 million damage to the department office, equipment and garage.
MAINE PUBLIC • July 14, 2025
Camp safety is in the spotlight after flooding killed dozens of campers and counselors in Texas. The state of Maine oversees the licenses for 168 summer youth camps and inspects them every other year to assess safety, sanitation, how food is prepared, and health. The state just updated its regulations for camps in May for the first time in nearly 20 years. Jennifer Jamison, Associate Director of Community Health at the Maine Center for Disease Control, said her biggest concern this summer is heat. "Based on climate change, I think it is the heat advisories," Jamison said. "The Maine CDC sends out advisories to the camps to let them know there's going to be excessive heat and what to monitor and when children need to be seen."
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 14, 2025
It took sweating through a flannel at an apple orchard in Gorham a few falls ago for me to finally admit defeat. Left feeling unsatisfied in a way that even virtual hearts couldn’t have fulfilled, I decided right then I was done picking my own anything. As we learned this summer, the problem was bigger than me. We wannabe farmers-for-a-day have taken a toll on U-pick operations, demanding bathrooms, food and other forms of entertainment, forcing actual farmers into becoming amusement park operators. Some of them are putting an end to the madness by closing to the public, not because there’s a lack of business but because whatever we spend isn’t worth the hassle. ~ Leslie Bridgers
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • July 13, 2025
The Abbe Museum in downtown Bar Harbor is dedicated to illuminating and advancing understanding of, and support for, Wabanaki Nations’ heritage, living cultures, and homelands. It hosted Dawnland for the second time last weekend, although the festival was preceded for many years by the annual Native American Festival and Basketmakers Market. Organizers estimated over 1,200 people attended the free two-day festival, which featured performances and 64 Indigenous vendors, mostly from regional tribal communities, with a range of artwork including traditional baskets and jewelry.
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • July 13, 2025
The 24-acre lot for sale in Belfast, between Renys and Goodwill, is touted as “an ideal location for retail, office, or mixed-use development.” But ads for the $295,000 property don’t mention that state and federal officials in 1997 approved its use as a mitigation site, to compensate for wetlands that the credit card giant MBNA filled while building its campus just across Route 3. And that as part of that deal, the parcel “shall be protected in perpetuity from future development.” The plan that Maine DEP and the US Army Corps of Engineers approved seems never to have been filed as a restriction to the deed for the property. Now, it’s as though it never existed.
SUN JOURNAL • June 13, 2025
Bill Lowe says it could be any day now — Songo Pond is getting ready to welcome its second loon chick in the last 40 years. Last year, Lowe and fellow residents reached out to Audubon’s Maine Loon Restoration Project, hoping to reverse decades of failed nesting, which had produced just one chick since the 1980s, in 2023. They scouted Songo by boat and chose a quiet spot to place a floating cedar-log nest — 4.5 feet square, anchored just offshore. Installed after the 2023 breeding season, the raft gave the loons time to get used to it. This spring, it was set up again.
SUN JOURNAL • June 13, 2025
A proposal from Bowdoin College for a student camping and outdoor education site on a 20.7-acre parcel off Iron Bridge Road is drawing sharp criticism from neighbors. Residents, worried about traffic, noise and the narrow private road leading to the property, have been vocal about the plans and what they say are inconsistencies in the school’s messaging. The college’s proposal plans for seven gravel pads for tents, each accommodating up to four tents; a 1,200-square-foot picnic shelter; two vault toilets; a hand-pump well; a small pad for a future maintenance building; and two parking areas and a bus drop-off zone along Iron Bridge Road. The location is central to areas where the group already sends trips, including Sugarloaf and Saddleback ski areas, Flagstaff Lake, the Appalachian Trail and the Bigelow Range.
SUN JOURNAL • July 13, 2025
I had someone write me to say they have always enjoyed my news columns and that they have taken some very good hiking tips from them. Since I’ve written maybe .00002% of my columns about hiking and the rest about crime and mischief, I sincerely hope the lady isn’t taking anything I write as hiking tips. If she does, she’ll probably end up hiking Mount Bartlett Street in Lewiston for those breathtaking views of Kennedy Park, and she’ll carry sidearms instead of trekking poles. ~ Mark LaFlamme
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • July 13, 2025
A concerning series of accidents and near-accidents in the waters of our state’s ponds, lakes and beaches this summer has highlighted the need for improved attention to water safety by members of the public — and by the entities in Maine that should step up and take responsibility for it. Maine should take it upon itself to do more to support a confident, calm relationship between people and water — and it should start early. Would it not be magnificent if Maine were to become the first to make swimming instruction compulsory in elementary school?
MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • July 13, 2025
Your recent editorial, “Hold Maine’s paper mills to higher standards,” gave an incomplete picture of Sappi’s environmental practices. At our Somerset mill in Skowhegan, about 80% of our energy comes from renewable sources, mainly biomass and black liquor, both byproducts of the papermaking process. These fuels are considered carbon neutral by the U.S. EPA, Maine DEP and many international governments because they’re part of the natural carbon cycle. We don’t use coal, and tire-derived fuel is a small part of our energy mix that helps keep tires out of landfills, reducing mosquito breeding grounds. ~ Sean Wallace, Sappi, North America
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 12, 2025
After years of delays caused by everything from difficulty securing easements to a global pandemic, the 1.6-mile project is — at last — starting to take shape, with construction having begun in June. When the Eastern Trail Alliance launched its first fundraising campaign, it believed the gap could be closed by 2017, at a cost of $4.1 million. If all goes smoothly from here, it will be just 10 years behind schedule and nearly $3 million over budget. The new link could be “a real game-changer,” said Scott Kunkler, the Scarborough Land Trust’s conservation director. “The connection goes beyond just recreation,” he said. “It could encourage more people to choose active transportation options for daily commutes or errands, helping to reduce reliance on vehicles.”
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 12, 2025
Maine cannot enforce a law voters approved two years ago that limits what foreign governments can spend on campaigning in state and local elections, following a federal appeals court decision Friday. The court is siding with several Maine utilities and media groups who sued Maine to stop it from enforcing the law in late 2023. Judge Lara Montecalvo remarked that the law was both “overwhelmingly popular” with voters, with 86% casting their ballot in favor, but also controversial — playing out amid a lengthy legal battle over the construction of an energy transmission line that would run across Maine to connect Massachusetts to Canadian electricity.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 12, 2025
Robert Stolt was fishing on the Kennebec River near Lines Island in Bath on Sunday when he jumped into the water to rescue his dog after it had tried to retrieve a fish. His body was recovered Wednesday evening after a three-day search by the U.S. Coast Guard and Maine Marine Patrol. The Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined his death was an accidental drowning.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 12, 2025
I used an L.L.Bean credit card for 40 years, but I cut mine up last year because it was a Citibank card, and Citibank is among the world’s top investors in fossil fuels. Third Act Maine volunteers, who want to reduce climate change, have been trying to convince L.L.Bean to change its credit card and L.L.Bean isn’t listening. It knows that our climate is threatened, and it could do something about it. ~ Richard Thomas, Waterville
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 11, 2025
From Aroostook County to the Atlantic Ocean and from Cumberland County to Cobscook Bay, Maine has many great conservation lands and many miles of fine hiking trails. Here’s a six-pack of good ones for your must-do list this summer. Enjoy!
• Deboullie Public Lands, Aroostook County
• Baxter State Park
• Acadia National Park
• Forest City Trails, Portland
• Cobscook Shores, Lubec
MAINE PUBLIC • July 11, 2025
From ATV riders to mountain bikers, hikers and horseback riders, joggers and walkers, Maine trails cater to all types. We’ll discuss the state of the state’s trails, including how communities can apply for a piece of the $30 million in funding signed into law last year. Some Maine communities are building their economic development plans around existing or new trails, the grant process, and the importance of maintaining existing trails. Panelists: Erin Amadon, founder, Town 4 Trail Services; Douglas Beck, Maine Recreational Trails Program. VIP Callers: Kristina Cannon, Main Street Skowhegan; Brian Threlkeld, Maine Outdoor Brands; Aimee Vlachos, University of New England Outdoor Business and Innovation bachelor’s program.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 11, 2025
The bane of many Maine gardeners’ summers has returned: Japanese beetles emerging from the ground to chew through crops, trees and ornamental plants. Mainers have battled these beetles for almost a century, but populations are increasing around the state with help from milder winters. Beetles appear in July, lay eggs and stay active into September. Experts recommend vacuuming up the bugs or knocking them off plants into a bucket of soapy water, where they’ll drown. This is easier in the mornings and evenings, when the bugs are more sluggish.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 10, 2025
Jess and Storey thought they’d gotten lucky. Hunting buddies from away, they had both drawn permits in Maine’s nonresident moose lottery, and they were taking their annual hunting trip to the woods west of Katahdin. A big empty wilderness, “country to get lost in.” After a week’s tramping but no moose, they come out of the forest to find dumbfounding devastation. No people, no electricity or cell service, bridges demolished and every vehicle and building burned. Who in God’s name is doing this to backcountry Maine? We don’t learn even the beginning of what’s happened until halfway through the book. At novel’s end, Heller brings this tale to an enormously satisfying conclusion. ~ John Alden
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 10, 2025
One hundred years ago, in July of 1925, the so-called Monkey Trial took place in Dayton, Tennessee. It was, I think, supposed to have been the final catharsis, the last gasp of religious fundamentalism guiding science instruction as evolution made its inexorable way into the educational curriculum. But a century since, we seem to have stalled in our progress. Evolution is a fact. The physical world changes, and life must change along with it or else it will go extinct. One would like to think that science had triumphed and fundamentalism had ebbed. But as of last year, 17 states taught evolution only alongside creationism. 100 years post-Scopes, anti-evolution sentiment still lives and breathes in the United States. ~ Robert Klose, emeritus professor of biological sciences, University of Maine at Augusta
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 10, 2025
With the sudden end of a long-standing federal tax credit for residential solar projects in sight, Maine’s solar installation companies are bracing for a short surge in demand followed by a long stretch of uncertainty. The residential clean energy credit, sometimes referred to as the 25D solar credit, offers homeowners a federal tax credit worth 30% of the cost of a new solar system. Depending on the project, that credit can be worth a five-figure sum. But the federal reconciliation bill, which President Donald Trump signed at an Independence Day picnic, ends eligibility for any expenses made after Dec. 31, several years earlier than was previously planned. That’s left some companies scrambling to plan past six months from now.
