The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 21, 2025
A Howland hunter has set a new Maine state record for the largest female black bear ever harvested. On Sept. 16, Zach LaFreniere tagged a massive sow while hunting in Corinth with a .35 Whelen rifle. The bear had a dressed weight of 358 pounds and an estimated live weight of 429.6 pounds.
CENTRAL MAINE • October 20, 2025
The allure of the legendary Bigfoot drew hundreds of people from across the state and beyond to Maine’s Bigfoot Festival on Saturday in Eustis. Most attendees dressed in attire that announced their belief in the elusive creature, filling the sidewalks, vendor booths and businesses of the small north Franklin County town. Throughout the day, speakers from the Maine Bigfoot Foundation and the International Cryptozoology Museum shared their knowledge during workshops at the Eustis Community Center. Maine Bigfoot Foundation co-founder Mike Vachon said a team of investigators recently logged three Bigfoot encounters at a site on Long Falls Dam Road in the Lexington area.
MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • October 20, 2025
Panel discussion on the Penobscot River Restoration: A Look at History, Dams and Ownership. The final event of a three-part speaker series called Conservation, Climate Change and Community. At Patagonia, Freeport, October 30, 6:30-8 pm. Sponsored by Appalachian Mountain Club Maine Chapter.
MAINE MORNING STAR • October 20, 2025
Save Our Signs is a nationwide effort to document and preserve the signs at sites operated by the National Park Service, activism against the Trump administration’s censorship, which both looms and grows. After the Trump administration threatened to scrub language on signs at national historic sites, the organizers of Save Our Signs nudged a phalanx of photographers to submit images. Consider the federal employees who spent days and weeks of their professional lives creating these historical displays. You’ll find even more patriotism if you join me in appreciating the folks who created the Save Our Signs website. The dedication that they show to free speech and their opposition to censorship hold up the First Amendment. Add to that their commitment to telling America’s full story, an honest effort pointing our nation in a virtuous direction, rather than the Trump administration’s threats to tamp down historical truths. Staring in the face of all that patriotism — the federal employees, the amateur photographers, the website creators — is the grim possibility that these signs might begin to disappear. ~ Eric Thomas teaches visual journalism
SUN JOURNAL • October 20, 2025
The Pine Tree Trail, originally designed for vehicles, has been resurrected by a grassroots group hoping to persuade people on motorcycles and electric and peddle bicycles to explore and traverse much of what Maine has to offer. The trail was originally designed in the mid-1930s after the Great Depression. Maine felt it would help to promote tourism. Soon after, war broke out and the trail lost traction. Signs faded and fell, and the route was all but forgotten. Then, in 2012, Nathan Nipula found an old sign. Nipula and his fiancé, Robbie McKay, eventually started looking into the origins and began contacting former and current state officials. Eventually, the secretary of state at the time, Matt Dunlap, got things moving. Since then, there have been signs erected and a robust Facebook page has been established. Communities along the route have jumped on board and begun promoting what they all hope will help local economies by bringing more than cars along the route.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 20, 2025
A rabid raccoon has been found in Deer Isle. The Hancock County town announced over the weekend that there also have been several other unconfirmed cases in raccoons. It described those reports as “widespread.” Deer Isle urged residents to exercise caution and ensure their pets are vaccinated against the virus and registered. Residents also should keep their trash covered to avoid attracting the attention of any infected wildlife.
THE WILDLIFE NEWS • October 20, 2025
In 1992, I joined with forest activists to establish RESTORE the North Woods. One of our first efforts was advocating the creation of Maine Woods National Park. Though I had visited Maine numerous times, I had not had seen the new National Monument since it opened. This fall, I finally had a chance to visit. In northern Maine, over 10 million acres are almost completely uninhabited. Creating a large public holding is easier here than in other areas because there are no towns to displace. In the late 1990s, a chance meeting between Jym St Pierre and Roxanne Quimby — then the owner of the Burt’s Bees company — led to a plan to acquire lands for a national park unit in Maine. There was initial opposition, but Roxanne, along with her son Lucas St. Clair, acquired 87,500 acres east of Baxter State Park from willing sellers. In 2016, she donated her land. President Barack Obama accepted it, and Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument was born. Given initial vocal opposition, it is encouraging that the state is now promoting the park. It as a work in progress. Over time, the forests will acquire old-growth characteristics. We can witness restoration happening right before our eyes. RESTORE hopes additional purchases or donations of land over time could eventually lead to a much larger national park unit in the Maine Woods.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 20, 2025
Maine will need at least a foot of rain before the ground freezes to alleviate the monthslong drought that has been drying out all corners of the state. If that amount of rain doesn’t arrive soon, drought conditions will likely linger into the spring. Once soils freeze, precipitation can no longer effectively recharge aquifers, and drought conditions would persist until the snow melts in the spring. That could create problems for people whose wells are running low — or have already dried up — because precipitation that would normally replenish groundwater won’t soak in. So far this year, 410 dry wells have been reported across Maine. That’s more than the past four years combined.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 20, 2025
The eastern coyote is often described as a newcomer. Yes and no. Some 60 million years ago, the order Carnivora first appeared in North America. Some diverged into doglike animals. Eventually, members of the dog family crossed the Bering land bridge to colonize Eurasia, Europe, and Africa. The gray wolf was such a species, spreading across the world, and then returning to North America. The coyote, on the other hand, never left North America. About 20,000 years ago, human hunters and their domesticated dogs arrived in North America. In the 15th century, domestic dogs were again introduced here, accompanied by Europeans. These breeds largely replaced those of the Native Americans. About 100 years ago, coyotes from Western North America entered the Great Lakes area and meet a decimated wolf population desperate for mates. Within a few decades, feral dogs were introduced into the mix. Today, we recognize the eastern coyote as having a genetic makeup of roughly 60% coyote, 30% wolf and 10% domestic dog. Coyotes have recently filled niches in the East once occupied by gray wolves and mountain lions. But they are not newcomers. They are native sons and daughters. ~ Sharman Apt Russell
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 20, 2025
We are facing a watershed moment, literally and figuratively, in Falmouth and Greater Portland. After the Falmouth Town Council passed an ordinance to limit pesticide and fertilizer use, the ordinance faced pushback; a referendum to repeal it will be on the ballot in Falmouth this fall. It’s important for our communities, our pets and our waterways to keep the pesticide and fertilizer restrictions in place. I am a veterinarian and marine biologist who has studied water quality and its impacts on living things. I know that what we put in our yards makes its way to our pets, our waterways, our coastlines and ultimately our bodies and our children’s bodies. Although Rachel Carson and her writings faced pushback and controversy, her call to action prevailed and the banning of DDT is why we hear birdsong today. It’s not easy, but we can adapt. ~ Susan Hayhurst, MS, DVM, Falmouth
MAINE MONITOR • October 19, 2025
Crew members from the Audubon Seabird Institute worked to cull laughing gulls this spring and summer, part of an effort to protect breeding puffins and terns. This fight against the laughing gulls was the latest conservation challenge faced by Project Puffin, now officially the Audubon Seabird Institute. The project’s 1983 island report happily marked the discovery of three laughing gull nests after a 69-year absence, saying they “usually nest compatibly with terns and seldom elicit aggression.” Four decades later, aggression is a problem. The laughing gull population last year surged to a record 2,457 breeding pairs. The gulls are known for stealing food from other birds, eyeing puffins with beak-loads of juicy hake, sand lance or haddock for chicks, and watching terns hover with glistening herring dangling down from their bills.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 19, 2025
Most Maine homes receive their electricity supply through the state-run standard offer program. They’re likely to see an estimated 15% jump in rates in January. The supply rate hike would be separate from a controversial request by Central Maine Power to increase its distribution rates to upgrade its aging network of wires, poles and substations. That proposal has been met with strong opposition. Maine’s expected supply cost increase is tied largely to wholesale natural gas prices that are on track to keep rising in 2026. Prices are up in part because the United States is projected to double the volume of liquefied natural gas shipped overseas by 2030. LNG exports are part of President Donald Trump’s goal of unleashing a “Golden Era of American Energy Dominance.” But higher natural gas prices are bad for energy consumers in New England because half the region’s power is generated by plants that burn natural gas. The cost of gas in turn sets the marginal price for what other forms of generation are paid.
CENTRAL MAINE • October 18, 2025
Brookfield White Pine Hydro, the owner of four dams on the lower Kennebec River, withdrew state-level applications for new water quality permits Thursday, saying new restrictions imposed by Maine regulators were too burdensome and complicated their pending sale to The Nature Conservancy. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection issued a draft approval of the permits earlier this month, but required extensive fish passage and water quality improvements to Brookfield Renewable Energy’s plans to upgrade the four dams between Skowhegan and Waterville. Brookfield said in a letter to the department Thursday those conditions were too restrictive. Environmental groups, meanwhile, said they found the restrictions didn’t go far enough and encouraged the state to deny the permits, instead of approving with extensive conditions.
SUN JOURNAL • October 19, 2025
Lucille Laliberte has been cleaning the pond she grew up on. But the well-intended work could be harmful, state officials and lake stewards say. So far, Laliberte estimates she has dug up, plucked and carried off a half-ton of debris from the exposed shoreline. And “invasive” plants, she says, which weren’t nearly as thick and unsightly when she lived on the pond. The 77-year-old’s cleanup efforts began in earnest in spring after an 8-foot drawdown of the pond to allow for the reconstruction of two remaining dams exposed several hundred feet of sand, debris and vegetation. Despite her best intentions to restore the area to the memories of her time on the pond, DEP confirmed she was indeed violating the Natural Resources Protection Act. The vegetation Laliberte has been removing isn’t invasive. It’s native to the pond.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 19, 2025
We’d been hiking for three miles before I started to feel a prickly sensation at the top of my foot. I stopped in the middle of the trail and pulled off my boot. Out rolled a smooshed caterpillar of a hickory tussock moth. Their hairs are barbed and contain an irritating substance that causes some people to have an allergic reaction. Over the course of the next day or so, my foot swelled and developed a bumpy rash of tiny blisters that itched horrifically — especially at night. Multiple health organizations liken the reaction to a poison ivy rash. After about a week of anti-itch cream — plus a session of me attempting to remove tiny caterpillar hairs from my skin with packing tape — my foot is back to normal. But the experience taught me to look in my hiking boots before shoving my feet into them.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 18, 2025
With the federal government shutdown affecting services at Acadia National Park, many visitors are looking for scenic trails, quiet lakes and coastal views elsewhere. Cobscook Shores in Lubec offers 20 privately funded parklands with more than 15 miles of undeveloped shoreline. Nearby, Quoddy Head State Park encompasses 541 acres at the easternmost point in the U.S. The region’s Bold Coast offers additional coastal escapes. Downeast Coastal Conservancy and Maine Coast Heritage Trust preserves feature dramatic cliffs, secluded coves and quiet trails for hiking, beachcombing and birdwatching. Great Wass Island Preserve in Beals adds granite ledges, ocean vistas and wild blueberry barrens. Near Ellsworth, Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust manages 5,200 acres of trails through forests, ledges and open ridges for hiking, wildlife viewing and camping. Donnell Pond Public Reserved Land offers hiking, fishing, paddling with primitive campsites available. Blue Hill Mountain has panoramic views of Blue Hill Bay, while Holbrook Island Sanctuary features woodlands, open fields and shoreline trails. Camden Hills State Park offers sweeping views of Penobscot Bay. Beech Hill Preserve in Rockport features rolling meadows.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 17, 2025
Maine has joined more than 20 states in a lawsuit against the Trump administration for terminating a $7 billion Solar for All program. The states allege the government illegally used its signature “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” to claw back funding. In a lawsuit filed in Washington state federal court, the states said that the Republican tax and spending law only eliminated uncommitted funding for Solar for All. But the law didn't affect program grants that were finalized and awarded to states more than a year ago and account for the vast majority of its funding, according to the complaint. The states want the court to return their money and block the Environmental Protection Agency from stopping the program again under the law's provisions.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 17, 2025
Brookfield Renewable told Maine regulators that its decision to sell four dams on the Kennebec River was influenced by the state's "overburdensome" fish passage requirements to relicense the four hydropower generators. In an Oct. 16 letter to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the international power company said standards imposed by the state in a draft water quality certificate conflicted with state law, would be prohibitively expensive to implement and were "arguably unattainable." One of the motivating factors for the sale "is the increasingly complex, expensive and uncertain regulatory landscape surrounding hydroelectric operations on the Lower Kennebec River," the company said in its letter. The Nature Conservancy last month unveiled an agreement to buy the dams around Skowhegan and Waterville with the goal of decommissioning them and ultimately returning a natural flow to the river and allow fish including Atlantic Salmon to swim to spawning grounds in its tributaries.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 17, 2025
The Maine Geological Survey says a recently-completed mineral mapping project in Aroostook County will help guide local land use decisions. In a three-year, federally-funded study, state geologists teamed up with researchers and students and the University of Maine at Presque Isle to map deposits of manganese, a critical mineral essential for the production of steel and batteries that is currently entirely imported. Maine Geological Survey senior geologist Amber Whittaker said it's now up to policymakers, municipalities, and landowners to decide what to do with the data.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 17, 2025
New Hermon Mountain recently announced the sale of its season passes with the caveat that the ski area will close after this season if a new owner is not found. The mountain on Newburgh Road in Hermon first opened to the public for skiing in 1960 and was later modernized with three chairlifts serving 20 marked trails, a tubing hill and a lodge. The 67.5-acre ski area property and business have been for sale since 2022 and are currently listed for $2.1 million. “We are still hopeful that someone will be able to purchase it and keep it a ski area before the end of this coming season but if not we will be closing it down and looking for alternatives to selling it, i.e. house lots or something like that,” said a message on the mountain’s homepage.
