Opinion: What the Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation got wrong

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 19, 2025

In 2018, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway Foundation published “Storied Lands & Waters,” a document designed to honor the cultural and ecological legacy of the Allagash River. It was a chance to recognize those who carved out lives of meaning and permanence along its banks — Scots-Irish and Acadian-Québécois families who endured isolation, brutal winters and hard labor to build something lasting. But the document fails to recognize the hundreds of immigrant families, including mine, whose sacrifices and labor built a lasting treasure. ~ Greg Jalbert, writer and former Maine Guide who grew up along the Allagash River

Opinion: Race between climate change and fossil fuel will determine fate of our children

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 19, 2025

Last year, the fossil fuel industry gave $219 million, mostly to help elect Trump and the Republican congressional majority. Now this industry is getting its payoff. The president is trying to stop the transition to renewable energy at a time when climate change is becoming more dangerous. And we are passing environmental tipping points now, which means that even when we switch completely to renewable energy, our climate will continue to get worse for some time. We are all spectators to a race that will determine the fate of our children. ~ Richard Thomas, Waterville

A Maine guide to spotting animals on your next hike

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 19, 2025

My best tip of spotting wildlife on the Maine coast and beyond: Keep your eyes open to all the possibilities. Rather than hanging your hopes on seeing a certain species — say a bald eagle or a harbor seal — approach the wilderness with the goal of discovering its complexities and enjoying any creature that crosses your path.

Opinion: Now is the time to protect Sears Island from industrialization

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 19, 2025

Since the 1970s, popular support for protecting Sears Island and opposition to out-sized Sears Island development proposals elevated the Penobscot Bay island into a compelling symbol of Maine’s economic and environmental policy options. Proposals for an oil refinery, a nuclear power plant, a coal-fired power plant, cargo port, LNG terminal, container port, and offshore wind manufacturing facility all faced oppositionstatewide and failed, while Sears Island’s 940 acres of old field, mixed forest, wetlands, sand beach, rocky beach, cliff, stream, salt marsh, and marine perimeter endured. When the path to developing floating offshore wind reopens, Maine can lead using new technology that supports launching foundations almost anywhere on our coast (such as aikido technologies new floating turbines), repurposing existing locations (Mack Point, Cousins Island) or integrating multiple manufacturing, launching and assembling locations much as the Aqua Ventus one-quarter scale did earlier this year. Meanwhile, Sears Island provides convincing reasons for protection: ~ Steve Miller

Superfund site in Brooksville will be dredged next week

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 19, 2025

Dredging work is expected to begin on a Superfund site in Brooksville next week, one of just two major projects that remain to be completed after years of cleanup on a section of the former Callahan metal mine. The site had been mined since at least the 1880s and, for a few years in the late 1960s and 70s, was an open-pit mine extracting primarily copper and zinc. The mine site had levels of polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCBs, which are toxins that can cause cancer, among other environmental issues. In 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency designated it a Superfund site, which gave the federal agency the ability to fund and organize cleanup efforts. When those efforts are eventually completed, it will mark the end of a wide-ranging remediation process that has spanned decades and millions of dollars.

Maine is under a fire watch. Half of the state could also freeze Friday night.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 18, 2025

The National Weather Service has issued a fire watch across the state due to ongoing drought conditions. The warning comes hand-in-hand with a freeze watch that has been issued for roughly half of the state. Thursday morning’s update from the U.S. Drought Monitor painted a bleak picture of the ongoing drought conditions across Maine, which has seen very little rainfall over the past few months. Just over 5.5% of the state is experiencing extreme drought. The fire watch issued by the NWS stretches across the majority of the state, with elevated risks focused through all of northern and eastern Maine. With low humidity and windy conditions, fires can start and spread quickly. The freeze watch issued for late Friday through Saturday morning encompasses regions of northwestern Aroostook County, northern Somerset, Piscataquis, Oxford and Franklin counties and central Somerset County.

New Welcome Center Opens For Acadia National Park

NATIONAL PARKS TRAVELER • September 18, 2025

A huge new transit and welcome center quietly opened this month, launching a high-stakes effort by Acadia National Park and key partners to persuade more visitors to take the park’s fare-free shuttle and reduce Acadia traffic and parking problems. The Acadia Gateway Center, a key aspect of the park’s transportation plan, is strategically situated off Route 3 in Trenton about 11 miles north of the national park’s Hulls Cove Visitor Center, which can be so busy, drivers may circle around for minutes looking for a parking spot while at the same time having to watch out for pedestrians, bicyclists and RVs.

Skyline Farm celebrates 25 years of conservation, carriages and community

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 18, 2025

North Yarmouth residents did not want the beloved pastures and woods of Skyline Farm to turn into the proposed 15 housing lots. The 54-acre parcel near Walnut Hill had belonged to Horace “Ken” Sowles, and his death in 1997 left questions of its future, as his wife intended to sell it. Purchasing Skyline Farm in 1970, Sowles had owned the farm buildings, horses and indoor horse riding arena that was built in 1959, the first of its kind in Maine. So a group of North Yarmouth residents raised the approximately $75,000 needed to purchase the property, with $25,000 approved for the purchase at the annual town meeting, smaller gifts from the community and $30,000 from a wealthy private donor in Virginia who never visited the property but had a passion for horses. In the summer of 2000, the newly formed Skyline Farm nonprofit and the Sowles family agreed to a purchase of the property with a conservation easement by the Royal River Conservation Trust.

Extreme drought grips parts of Maine as lengthy dry spell worsens

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 18, 2025

More than 5% of Maine is now in extreme drought conditions, and 58% of the state is now classified as being in an severe drought, which is one level below extreme. That includes all of southern, central and Down East Maine — including the state’s entire coastline, from Kittery to Eastport.

Maine’s forests, yards and lakes under siege by invasive species

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 18, 2025

“Every invasive species we track comes with its own set of problems, and the list is only getting longer,” said Chad Hammer, invasive plant biologist with Maine’s Natural Areas Program. “Maine has all the ingredients invasives need: wetlands, forests, disturbed soil, and a changing climate. Once something gets introduced, the conditions are right for it to spread.” Climate change, in other words, amplifies the pressures brought with nonnative species by further destabilizing ecosystems, tipping the balance in favor of invasives. Japanese knotweed crowds riverbanks with bamboo-like walls that choke out nearly all native plants. Glossy buckthorn ahas infiltrated wetlands and forests with the help of birds that carry its seeds far from yards. Purple loosestrife has transformed wetlands across the state into monocultures: areas where the invasive establishes itself exclusive to other plants. It isn’t just plants crowding out their neighbors. Insects and diseases like the emerald ash borer and hemlock woolly adelgid contribute to the elimination of tree species as forests change composition over time. 

Towns stick with Orrington trash plant through closure and legal threats

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 17, 2025

Some communities with contracts to the waste-to-energy incinerator in Orrington are unbothered; others are uncertain about when the Orrington plant will reopen and whether they could be drawn into a lawsuit a previous owner has filed against the current one. Despite all that, towns are largely still standing by the facility given contracts they have to send their waste there when it reopens.

High Peaks Alliance secures $234,000 grant to protect the Mosher Hill falls

DAILY BULLDOG • September 17, 2025

The High Peaks Alliance has been awarded a $234,000 grant to accelerate efforts to conserve the 210-acre Mosher Hill Falls in Farmington. This federal funding comes from the US Forest Service’s Community Forest Program and was the only project chosen in the state. This latest funding raises the total amount secured to $470,000, bringing the Alliance within $60,000 of its $530,000 goal. Funds will support the acquisition of the land, development of safe parking and sustainable trails, installation of educational signage, and stewardship programs for visitors of all ages.

Maine companies partner to conserve 257 acres in Biddeford

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 16, 2025

A partnership between Maine Water Co. and Maine Coast Heritage Trust will permanently conserve 257 acres of forest and open space in Biddeford. Located on the southwest side of South Street in Biddeford, the protected area includes a large area of forest and wetlands, including a red maple swamp and a rare oak-hickory forest, both of which provide vital habitat to Maine species. The protected area is also adjacent to Maine Water Co.’s new Saco River Drinking Water Resource Center, which delivers drinking water to Biddeford, Saco, Old Orchard Beach and Pine Point.

New England’s shrimp industry is struggling, with fishermen catching few in 2025

ASSOCIATED PRESS • September 16, 2025

PORTLAND — There’s an effort underway to bring New England shrimp back to seafood customers — but fishermen have found few of the crustaceans, and the fishing industry that harvests them may face an even longer shutdown. Fishermen have been under a moratorium on catching shrimp for more than a decade because of low population levels that scientists have attributed to climate change and warming oceans. The harvesters were allowed to catch a small number of shrimp this past winter as part of an industry-funded sampling and data collection program.

Penobscot Nation to reclaim 1,700 acres in rural Maine as tribe grows land holdings

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 16, 2025

A 1,700-acre parcel of wetlands and forest, striated by former logging roads, was transferred to the Appalachian Mountain Club on Tuesday as part of a larger acquisition. And in short order, the AMC will hand the land back to the Penobscot Nation. It’s a small but nonetheless important step, Loring says, in the slow repatriation of land to the Penobscot Nation.

New England hydropower generation slows amid drought

MAINE PUBLIC • September 15, 2025

Northern New England's hydro dams are struggling to generate power because of drought conditions. Regional Grid operator ISO-New England spokesperson Mary Kate Colapietro said environmental conditions can affect electricity production. "That could be a variety of factors, from things like the weather, if there are say drought conditions that could perhaps impact what generators are making decisions on," Colapietro said. But there might be other reasons dam owners could also be holding back from bidding to sell energy into the grid, Colapietro added.

We’re standing up for Maine’s ‘right to food’ amendment

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 15, 2025

My family is standing up for the right to keep chickens and provide our family healthy protein. We hope that our challenge to our city’s ordinance will ensure that the right to food isn’t chipped away to nothing with heavy-handed rules. We started raising chickens after close friends left for another state and gave us their birds. It turned out to be a life-changing decision. Today, we keep 19 chickens and every day they give us fresh eggs and occasionally we cull a bird for meat. We’re now suing Calais. We love Calais. We didn’t rush to file a lawsuit. For months, we worked with city officials to see whether there might be a variance or exemption that would let us keep our chickens. But the answer was no. We believe the right to food is too important to leave hanging. ~ Kamiwan Oliver, Calais

Opinion: Maine must keep moving forward on clean energy, climate change

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 13, 2025

Just a short two years ago, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) proved that tackling climate change and growing the economy are not mutually exclusive. The law unleashed a clean energy boom nationwide, creating thousands of good-paying union jobs, lowering household energy costs, and giving communities the tools to protect themselves from extreme weather. Now, Congress is working to undo that progress. Lawmakers passed, and President Donald Trump signed, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill.” More like the “Big Ugly Bill,” instead of lowering costs like clean energy does, this bill drives them up. It’s nothing more than a Republican rate hike on everyday people. This legislation guts the very programs that made the IRA such a success. The result will be higher home energy bills, lost jobs, and weaker competitiveness for Maine businesses, all while handing out tax breaks to billionaires and polluting oil and gas companies. ~ Nicholas Janzen, Maine Conservation Voters, and Francis Eanes, Maine Labor Climate Council

How does Maine’s forest carbon credit market work?

MAINE MONITOR • September 12, 2025

Forest carbon credits are gaining traction in Maine. Yet as the voluntary carbon market picks up, some in the industry are worried about access for small family forest landowners with fewer resources than corporations who manage bigger plots of land. In order to participate in the market where carbon credits are bought and sold, a forest landowner first needs to understand exactly how much carbon their trees are capable of storing. The market hinges on precise carbon sequestration calculations.

Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority settles with federal regulators over PFAS spill

MAINE PUBLIC • September 12, 2025

The Brunswick executive airport will eliminate toxic PFAS chemicals from fire suppression systems under a federal settlement to resolve violations from a massive firefighting foam spill last year. In an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority will file a plan by the end of the year to cleanse or replace fire suppression systems in its aircraft hangers. MRRA Executive Director Dan Stevenson said that all the Aqueous Film Forming Foam previously used to smother fires has been removed from the airport. The foam is laden with PFAS chemicals that have been linked to health effects such as low birth weight and certain cancers. The agency is considering options to eliminate foam remnants in equipment at the former U.S. Navy Base.