Maine CDC identifies grey fox with rabies in Waterville

MAINE PUBLIC • August 15, 2025

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said a grey fox in Waterville tested positive for rabies this week. The agency urged residents to maintain a distance from wildlife, keep domestic animals up to date on rabies vaccines and keep outdoor food sources enclosed to avoid attracting wildlife. The Waterville Police Department reported the fox was found in Quarry Road Trails, a recreational hiking and mountain biking area owned by the city. According to the Maine CDC rabies tracking dashboard, this is the fourth fox in the state that has tested positive for rabies this year.

Column: Why are red-winged blackbirds spending more time around feeders?

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 15, 2025

An atypical summer has led to a lot of atypical behavior from wildlife. A great example is why red-winged blackbirds were spending more time around their bird feeders in June than usual. This can likely be explained by food availability. With increasingly warmer winters, we are seeing red-winged blackbirds arrive earlier than they were even a couple of decades ago. They typically eat seeds throughout the non-breeding season, from late summer to early in the following spring. Come summer, most birds need to switch their diets from seeds/plants to insects. If the food isn’t there, the birds need to adapt and perhaps even delay nesting. The abundant rain in the spring made it harder for red-winged blackbirds to nest, and they probably weren’t finding the food (insects) they needed until the weather improved. Supplementing their diet with seeds during this period was likely an easy alternative. ~ Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Doug Hitchcox

Letter: Beech leaf disease is not connected to timber harvesting in Maine

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 15, 2025

An Aug. 11 letter to the editor regarding timber harvesting — between 2016 and 2018 — on the Jamie’s Pond Management Area in Hallowell connected it to to beech leaf disease. Several assumptions need to be corrected. Beech leaf disease is an invasive species, first discovered in Ohio in 2012, that spread to the Northeast about a decade later. Blaming logging practices for its presence is completely unfounded. The timber harvest on Jamie’s Pond took place almost 10 years ago; beech leaf disease was not discovered in Maine until 2021. Forest management is the solution, not the culprit. ~ Dana Doran, Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast, Augusta

A new national monument honors the woman who gave Americans the weekend

TIME OUT • August 14, 2025

Opened in July, the Frances Perkins National Monument is one of the country’s newest national monuments, and it would be very fitting to visit it on Labor Day, since Perkins herself was a labor activist. Get yourself to Newcastle, Maine—about an hour north of Portland—to honor the woman who made our lives significantly better. A brand-new welcome center at the Frances Perkins National Monument opened for visitors this June after the December 2024 designation as a national monument. Previously, Perkins's home and its acreage were a National Historic Landmark, designated in 2014. The Frances Perkins Center (a nonprofit dedicated to sharing her achievements and relating them to American life today) bought the property from the Perkins family in 2020 and donated it to the National Park Service. The center continues on as the official interpretive and philanthropic partner with the NPS to staff the site and its programs. 

Acorn Engineering, Inc. donates critical services to Mosher Hill Falls Project

DAILY BULLDOG • August 14, 2025

High Peaks Alliance has announced an in-kind sponsorship from Acorn Engineering, Inc. of Kingfield, Maine, in support of the Mosher Hill Falls project. Through a generous donation of professional engineering services, Acorn Engineering has played a pivotal role in advancing this important community initiative. The Mosher Hill Falls project ensures the long-term protection of 200+ acres for public access. Located just minutes from downtown Farmington, the property features a 45-foot-tall waterfall that cascades through a dramatic, steep-sided gorge and a meandering, informal trail. To safeguard the sensitive environment surrounding the falls, erosion and the absence of sustainable trails are being addressed through innovative, forward-thinking trail design and restoration.

Bacteria warnings dropped for 5 southern Maine beaches

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 14, 2025

Elevated bacteria advisories for five southern Maine beaches that had prompted warnings from officials were all dropped by Thursday evening: Little Beach and Riverside Beach in Ogunquit, Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport, Higgins Beach in Scarborough and Laite Beach in Camden,

125 Miles of Pure Coastal Maine Magic: The Bold Coast is One of America's Best

WBLM • August 14, 2025

Maine is filled with beautiful roads, unique byways, and historic drives. One of these drives has been gaining considerable national attention. The popular Afar Magazine recently compiled a list of some of the most beautiful drives in America, highlighting seven amazing routes to showcase the stunning beauty of this country. According to Afar, that incredible beauty can be found in Maine's own Bold Coast Scenic Byway. Stretching from Milbridge to Lubec and circling up to Eastport, this 125-mile route showcases the pure beauty of coastal Maine. The road offers drivers a unique view of working waterfronts, lighthouses, coastal villages, state parks, stunning scenery—and perhaps even a few wildlife encounters. It truly is Downeast Maine at its finest.

Flash drought fueled by dry weather, extreme heat now affecting over 1 million Mainers

SUN JOURNAL • August 14, 2025

More than a third of Maine is now in moderate drought thanks in part to weeks of dry weather and extreme heat, according to new data released Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor, with much of the rest of the state facing conditions just shy of an official drought. The flash drought conditions developed in a matter of weeks and are likely to spread and worsen through the end of the month, said Sarah Jamison, service hydrologist with the National Weather Service office in Gray. More than 1 million people live in the drought area, which encompasses much of southern, central and Down East Maine. Another 43.6% of the state — including the western mountains, highlands and eastern interior — is experiencing abnormally dry conditions, one step below an official drought. Only the far northern reaches of Maine are still considered to have normal conditions.

Living alone on an island in Casco Bay, he’s found a whole new world

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 14, 2025

Scott Kern lives on Sand Island in Casco Bay during the summer months. He calls it Planet Sand. It’s all part of his plan to save Planet Sand, both the land itself and the world he’s created around it, complete with its own gods, laws and units of measurement (“too much or not enough”), as well as a website and merch meant to help fund the work needed to protect it from very real-world environmental threats. Sober for more than six years, Kern started coming out for camping trips that got longer each year until he was spending most of the summer on the island — a purchase that his parents, who both worked as corporate real estate paralegals, and another couple made in the early ’90s. Magical thinking is part of his diagnosis, schizotypal personality disorder, but his fears about the environmental threat to Planet Sand are far from imaginary.

As Canada wildfires choke US with smoke, Republicans demand action. But not on climate change

ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 14, 2025

Republican U.S. lawmakers say Canada has done too little to contain wildfires and smoke that have fouled the air in several states this summer. They’ve demanded more forest thinning, prescribed burns and other measures to prevent fires from starting. They’ve warned the smoke is hurting relations between the countries and suggested the U.S. could make it an issue in tariff talks. But what they haven’t done is acknowledge the role of climate change — a glaring and shortsighted omission, according to climate scientists. It also ignores the outsized U.S. contribution to heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels like coal and gas that cause more intense heat waves and droughts, which in turn set the stage for more destructive wildfires, scientists say.

Here's how Maine's emergency managers are preparing for dangerous heat — now and in the future

MAINE PUBLIC • August 14, 2025

Nuka Research and Planning Group is a company contracted by state to help local emergency leaders establish plans to keep people safe from harmful heat and cold. Heat waves are the deadliest form of extreme weather, killing more people in the U.S. every year than hurricanes, floods, or winter storms according to the National Weather Service. Extremely dangerous heat that's still unusual in Maine. But emergency officials across the state are already planning for a future where they’re responding to temperature spikes as silent natural disasters.

New book details how Maine’s North Woods was protected

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 14, 2025

During the 20th century, a dozen or so corporations and family businesses owned roughly 12 million acres of northern Maine. It was a vast industrial woodlot. Then private owners began selling off their land. From 1990 to 2015 four million acres were entered into some kind of conservation. “Loving the North Woods” introduces the issues, participants and processes behind this transformation, then describes seven conservation agreements that protected some two and a quarter million acres. But the account, told entirely from the point of view of protection groups, glosses over limitations to what was actually achieved. The biggest issue is that the majority of these lands are protected by conservation easements rather than fee ownership. The easements prevent development. But they allow landowners to continue logging. And most of the big agreements involved payments of millions of dollars. A new paradigm may be emerging. In 2016 President Obama created the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. ~ John Alden

Opinion: On Wabanaki priorities, the Maine Legislature gets an incomplete grade

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 14, 2025

The first legislative session of the 132nd Legislature has wrapped up, leaving the Wabanaki Alliance with mixed results and uncertainty. We successfully defeated two legislative proposals that would have been detrimental to Wabanaki Nations’ interests. However, many of our proactive legislative efforts, aimed at advancing self-determination and economic opportunity, are still in various stages of progression. If we were to grade this session, “incomplete” would be the most accurate assessment. Many of our initiatives are still in limbo. ~ Osihkiyol Crofton-Macdonald and Maulian Bryant, Wabanki Alliance

Developer proposes 200 units of condos near downtown Belfast

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 13, 2025

A proposed condo development in Belfast would be one of the largest new housing projects in the region. It would bring 200 condominium units in duplex and quadplex buildings, according to information presented to the Planning Board on Wednesday. The developer, Benjamin Hooper, aims to build on 35 acres off Priscilla Lane, with additional access from Elementary Avenue. The site is located at the end of the lane and borders the Route 1 bypass, about a mile south of downtown.

Portland Land Bank Commission backs bid for North Deering land once eyed for condos

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 13, 2025

A large piece of land near the Presumpscot River Preserve has sat empty for years. Save for a couple of trails, the parcel is green and untouched. Members of the Portland Land Bank Commission are hoping it will stay that way. On Wednesday, the commission unanimously recommended spending up to $400,000 to help the nonprofit Trust for Public Land make an offer on the 13.3-acre parcel off Hope Avenue. The land is being auctioned after a plan to build 54 housing units fell through.

Acadia National Park sets all-time record for monthly visits

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 13, 2025

Though fewer international visitors are coming to Maine and the numbers of cruise ship passengers in Bar Harbor have dropped off sharply this summer, Acadia National Park had its busiest month ever in July. The reason, according to tourism industry officials, could be the dry weather Maine had last month. While visitation to the park has been historically high since the COVID pandemic, the record traffic through Acadia National Park comes at a time when economic and cultural factors such as threats of tariffs from the Trump administration and resulting soured relationships with traditional American allies have created economic uncertainty and slowed traffic across the border from Canada. The total estimated number of visits to the park in July was 797,000.

Wildfires are burning across Maine as dry spell adds to increasing danger

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 13, 2025

Amid a run of dry weather, the fire danger has grown across much of Maine as crews battle several wildfires, including a 30-acre blaze near the Canadian border and a stubborn underground fire in a wooded area of Biddeford. Fire officials are warning people to be extra careful because the dangerous conditions are unlikely to improve in the short term. There is no significant rainfall expected in the next week, and more than 35% of the state is considered to be abnormally dry. There have been 508 wildfires in Maine this year as of Wednesday, burning about 393 acres.

Rescue crews save man after fall at Screw Auger Falls

SUN JOURNAL • August 13, 2025

Maine game wardens and first responders from multiple agencies rescued a man who was seriously injured when he fell from a ledge in the area of Screw Auger Falls in Grafton Township Wednesday afternoon. Brexton Getchell, 21, of Unity, fell 25-30 feet and landed in the water, sustaining serious injuries.

Next Sustainable Brunswick lecture discusses the fight to save brook trout

TIMES RECORD • August 13, 2025

Join speakers from the Merrymeeting Bay Chapter of Trout Unlimited as they present “Pollution, Practices, Policy and Fighting to Save Brunswick’s Brook Trout” as part of the Sustainable Brunswick lecture series from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Curtis Memorial Library, 23 Pleasant St.

A fox in Waterville tested positive for rabies. Here’s how to stay safe.

CENTRAL MAINE • August 13, 2025

Officials are reminding people to take precautions around animals after a recent confirmed case of rabies in Waterville. On Tuesday, a letter from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said a gray fox in the city recently tested positive for the viral disease. The fox was found at the Quarry Road Trails, a year-round recreational area. State officials also warned in recent weeks that bats, a common carrier of rabies, are most active in Maine from the middle of the summer through early September. So far this year, 21 animals in Maine tested positive for rabies in 12 counties. Fourteen raccoons, three foxes, three skunks and one bat account for the cases. In the last 20 years, Maine has had anywhere from 28 to 127 rabies cases a year.