Opinion: For well-being and science, chip in with nature observations

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 16, 2025

We’ve been bombarded with news of deep cuts to federal funding for research, science and monitoring. The immediate impacts are stark: jobs lost, projects canceled, colleagues scrambling to find their footing. There are also impacts we’ve yet to see: fewer people to monitor plant and animal populations, an erosion of scientists’ ability to establish baselines and an overall weakening of our ability to carry out science-backed management. But there is something you can do: go outside and look around. Download iNaturalist, Nature’s Notebook, eBird or other apps designed to help you document nature in your yard and share what you see in your local environment. By contributing observations of leafing, flowering and pollinator activity, you help scientists understand how climate is changing, how species are responding and how our communities can adapt for the future. ~ Georgia Murray, Appalachian Mountain Club, and Georgia Silvera Seamans, independent researcher

Maine Calling: Geology: Stories of Earth's Layers

MAINE PUBLIC • July 15, 2025

In her new book, Strata, author Laura Poppick explores earth’s 4.54-billion-year history as revealed in its layers—its seafloors, riverbeds, and striated landscapes. Poppick, a Bates alum, introduces us to scientists puzzling out Earth’s deep history, from the oxygenation of the planet through the advent of life as we know it. They believe learning more about Earth’s past is key to understanding the future, and how Earth responds to change. We’ll also learn how Maine’s geologic history fits into the global picture. Panelists: Laura Poppick, author of Strata: Stories from Deep Time; Amber Whittaker, Maine Geological Survey; Douglas N. Reusch, professor of geology University of Maine Farmington. VIP Caller: Bob Gastaldo, emeritus professor of geology, Colby College; Maggie Kroenke, Maine Mineral & Gem Museum.

Opinion: L.L.Bean is facing great opportunity — and great risk

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 15, 2025

I have always felt good shopping at L.L.Bean. Until recently when I learned the ugly truth underlying Bean’s projected image of a being a responsible corporate citizen. In 2024 the apparel and fashion sustainability and ethics rating platform Good on You gave L.L.Bean an overall rating of “Not Good Enough. There’s no evidence it’s taking meaningful action to reduce its climate impacts.” Last month, 48 national, regional and Maine-based organizations, collectively representing more than 2 million supporters, sent a letter to L.L.Bean CEO Stephen Smith asking him to “Meet with Citibank leaders to express your concern about Citi’s fossil fuel investments and how these are affecting both L.L.Bean’s business and reputation.” Think what great marketing it could be for a company that celebrates the love of the outdoors to truly walk its talk and tout its influence for the good of the planet. ~ Richard Peterson, Ph.D., University of New England as emeritus professor of environmental studies

Rare image of great white shark captured off the coast of Maine

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC • July 14, 2025

As soon as National Geographic Explorer and photographer Brian Skerry locked eyes with the enormous animal, he knew immediately what was staring back at him. “There’s no mistaking that face,” he says. A nearly 10-foot long great white shark was just four feet away. Sharks tagged with tracking devices have been documented off the U.S. coast of Maine, but Skerry thinks this is the first underwater photo of one here.  Once rare, great whites are now flourishing in the Gulf of Maine, which stretches from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Nova Scotia, Canada. While these growing numbers might make it easier to see or photograph a shark in nearby waters, experts say the risk of being bitten by a great white remains low.

Federal appeals court says Maine's foreign electioneering law is likely unconstitutional

MAINE PUBLIC • July 14, 2025

A federal appeals court has agreed that Maine's voter-approved law dealing with foreign spending on elections is unconstitutional. In November 2023, roughly 86% of voters supported a ballot initiative that sought to ban foreign governments from spending to influence candidate elections or referendums in Maine. The initiative was a response to the tens of millions of dollars that Central Maine Power and Hydro Quebec spent to defeat an earlier referendum trying to block a controversial power line project through western Maine. CMP, Hydro Quebec and Versant Power challenged the law. In early 2024, a U.S. District Court judge blocked the state from enforcing the law. And on Friday, two judges with First Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with that decision in separate but concurring opinions. They said the law would likely violate the campaign activity and, therefore, the free speech rights of U.S. corporations that have foreign shareholders.

L.L. Bean CEO and President set to leave the company early next year

MAINE PUBLIC • July 14, 2025

L.L.Bean has announced that Stephen Smith will leave the company early next year after ten years as president and CEO. In a press release issued Monday, the Freeport-based retailer credits Smith with modernizing operations and helping the company navigate the pandemic, during which it earned record profits. The company's Board of Directors has initiated a search for Smith's successor.

Enjoy nature in nature with the can’t-miss movies at Maine Outdoor Film Festival

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 14, 2025

Maine loves its outdoors, in all its fascinating and multifaceted glory. The Maine Outdoor Film Festival (July 23-27) expands that love to the rest of our teeming, diverse and sadly imperiled world with a five-day movie masterpiece of documentaries, shorts, Maine-made movies and other cinematic explorations of the word around us.

Chebeague-Cumberland Land Trust acquires 77 wooded acres in Cumberland

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 14, 2025

The Chebeague and Cumberland Land Trust acquired 77 acres of forest in Cumberland known as Watson Woods through a land purchase. The parcel — a mile from downtown Cumberland — had long been eyed by the trust. “CCLT and the town have waited decades for the opportunity to conserve this stunning parcel,” said CCLT Executive Director Penny Asherman. The parcel features a cascade waterfall and abundant wildlife. Adjacent to the trust’s Rines Forest and Read Family Farm and Woods, the combined parcels will create a conserved block of more than 450 acres. The trust will construct trails and a small parking area on the Watson Woods property over the next year. Watson Woods is part of a multi-town conservation and recreation corridor stretching over 2,000 acres from Windham through Falmouth, Cumberland and beyond.

Rumford looks to build parks and rec building by end of year

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.

Safety is front of mind for Maine youth camps

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."

Column: Of course millennials killed U-pick farms

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

Wabanaki leaders offer perspective on America’s 250th at Bar Harbor festival

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.

Why is conserved land in Belfast being sold as commercial property?

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.

Albany’s Songo Pond may get second loon chick in 40 years

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.

Bowdoin College’s plan for Kingfield campground meets local resistance

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.

Column: Take a hike on the wild side

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

Editorial: Maine must not leave water safety to chance

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?

Letter: Editorial offered incomplete picture of Sappi’s environmental practices

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

Closing the gap on Southern Maine’s Eastern Trail finally moving toward completion

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.”

Court rules Maine can’t enforce law prohibiting foreign spending on campaigns

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.