Brunswick Rotary Club presents Phillips Award to conservationist

HARPSWELL ANCHOR • October 22, 2025

Brunswick conservationist Jym St. Pierre has been named the sixth recipient of the Brunswick Rotary Club’s annual Walter H. “Doc” Phillips Memorial Award, named for a late Harpswell volunteer. The club presented the award Oct. 16 during a ceremony at the Harpswell Town Office. St. Pierre, who lives in Brunswick, has spent nearly five decades protecting Maine’s natural landscapes. Since 1995, he has served as Maine director of RESTORE: The North Woods. He previously worked with the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, the Northern Forest Alliance and the Maine Department of Conservation. He also helped found the Kennebec Land Trust and Maine Conservation Voters. He continues to serve on the board of Friends of Baxter State Park, as well as the Brunswick Town Commons Committee.

Maine summer visitor numbers down slightly, despite fears of broader fallout from Canadian boycott

MAINE PUBLIC • October 22, 2025

Fewer Canadians visited Maine this summer, but the drop-off was not as bad as many in the state's hospitality industry had initially feared. According to a report from the Maine Office of Tourism, Canadians did make up a smaller share of summer visitors this year. Overall visitor numbers were down 6% this summer, and more than half of that decline is attributed to Canadians who may have been alienated by tariffs and President Trump's suggestion that Canada become the 51st state. But the report says the drop-off was not as steep as expected, in part due to a concerted effort by the Mills' administration to welcome Canadian visitors. The report says overall, visitors spent nearly $5 billion in the state this summer.

Maine DEP accuses Orrington plant owner of delaying environmental cleanup

MAINE PUBLIC • October 22, 2025

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has filed another notice of violation against the owner of a former Orrington chemical company for allegedly failing to complete environmental cleanup at the site. Mallinckrodt US "continues to evade the clear requirement" that it remove remaining mercury-contaminated soil at the old HoltraChem factory, according to the Oct. 20 notice. The state said the company had failed to submit a revised cleanup plan to excavate tainted soil and had not filed a suitable proposal to remove an industrial sewer at the site. The company also had not established a trust fund to cover future operation of the plant's wastewater treatment plant, groundwater collection and monitoring, according to the notice. Three years ago, the company agreed to pay at least $187 million to address mercury pollution in the Penobscot river and settle a long-running lawsuit. Representatives for Mallinckrodt's parent company, medical device manufacturer Medtronic, did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

New accessible nature trail unveiled in Brunswick

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 22, 2025

A new trail at Woodward Point Preserve in Brunswick aims to make the outdoors more welcoming. Andy’s Trail — named for Dr. Andrew Cook, who along with his wife contributed the farmland that would become Woodward Point Preserve — is now open to the public. The half-mile, 5-to-7-foot-wide, packed-stone surface was built to comply with U.S. Forest Service and Architectural Barriers Act accessibility guidelines. That meant constructing the trail with suitable slope for wheelchair users and people with other mobility constraints, and using hard, durable materials.

South Portland couple raising home to counter rising water

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 22, 2025

When Jim Shafer and Carol Epstein moved into their South Portland home more than 10 years ago, they weren’t thinking about how climate change would directly impact them. “What the storms of January 2024 said to us and to many others is that the impacts of this are happening now,” Epstein said. “It brought an immediacy to it.” By next spring, their first floor will be elevated by 5 feet — the product of more than a year of permitting, planning and construction, the project is estimated to cost $500,000. The sea level in Maine is projected to rise between 1.1 and 3.2 feet by 2050 and 3 and 9.3 feet by 2100, increasing the risks — and impacts — of coastal flooding. Epstein and Shafer might be among the first South Portland residents to elevate their home in response to the rising risk of coastal flooding, but their neighbors are eagerly watching the progress and monitoring results. Elsewhere along Maine’s coast, homeowners have been elevating their homes for years.

Maine expands ‘do not eat’ advisory for wildlife due to PFAS contamination

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 22, 2025

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that people limit consuming animals harvested from three different towns due to PFAS contamination. The new advisories apply to deer and turkey hunted in parts of the towns of Knox, Thorndike and Unity. That is on top of warnings to limit intake of animals harvested in Fairfield, Skowhegan, Unity, Unity Township, Albion, Freedom, Knox and Thorndike. The Maine CDC issued the new guidelines after elevated levels of PFAS, the group of man-made “forever chemicals,” were detected in deer or wild turkey sampled by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and the Maine CDC.

Lyme disease cases surge in Maine this year, surpassing record set in 2024

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 22, 2025

Lyme disease cases in Maine have surged this year, with the latest data showing 3,569 cases as of Oct. 14 — surpassing the record of 3,218 cases for all of 2024, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Maine is also seeing high levels of other tickborne diseases this year, with 1,255 anaplasmosis and 324 babesiosis cases through Oct. 14. The warming climate is contributing to the increase in tickborne diseases by expanding the deer tick’s range into colder areas of Maine and extending when they are active. The ongoing drought doesn’t appear to have harmed tick populations.

Advancing Maine’s Forest Economy

COLBY COLLEGE • October 22, 2025

As the most heavily forested U.S. state by percentage of land area, Maine has a unique and, in some ways, daunting responsibility to understand, manage, and protect its forests for industry and conservation alike. With this in mind, Justin Becknell, associate professor of environmental studies and chair of Colby’s Environmental Studies Department, has joined a statewide initiative that aims to use science and collaboration to advance the Maine forest economy. Colby’s role in the project, enabled by $1 million of grant funding, will focus on using artificial intelligence to process massive quantities of forest data and make it available—and easily understandable—to forest landowners. Becknell said, “You could click on your parcel on the map, and this website would spit out a bunch of data, like an estimate of habitat quality, carbon stocks, tree species diversity, estimated age, and board feet.”

Behind the Scenes of a PFAS Study

FRIENDS OF CASCO BAY • October 22, 2025

Friends of Casco Bay and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences teamed up in 2023 for a three-year study of PFAS in Casco Bay. These “forever chemicals” are found in everything from camping gear to food wrappers, and we suspected they might show up in marine waters, too. We didn’t know our first year of sampling would lay the foundation for understanding a looming crisis. By 2024, we planned to monitor 70 water sites and 45 sediment sites. That changed after a massive spill of firefighting foam in Brunswick in August 2024 sent PFAS into Harpswell Cove. Suddenly, our study had a new urgency. We added six more sites, increased testing, and coordinated with Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Here is a peek behind the scenes through the eyes of two key researchers. 

Want to know if a tick carries diseases? The UMaine tick lab can help.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 22, 2025

In what must be one of the best buys for your money anywhere, when you send a tick to the UMaine lab, they will identify it for free! For a nominal $20 fee, they will conduct DNA testing panels to detect pathogens that can cause tick-borne disease in Maine. ~ Donald E. Hoenig, Belfast, former Maine state veterinarian

Not feeling the sting: In Jackman, Canadian tourists and trucks still rolling through

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 22, 2025

About 312,000 fewer travelers crossed the border into Maine from June through August compared to the same months in 2024, data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows. That represents a drop of about 29%. This year’s drop in traffic has coincided with President Donald Trump’s tariff policy and threats to make Canada the United States’ 51st state. At the Jackman port of entry, from June through August, about 57,000 fewer travelers crossed there than in 2024, a decrease of about 33%. In town, however, many people said they have not felt any significant impact from the dip in traffic. 

Building a museum brought former Bucksport mill workers back together

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 22, 2025

When Bucksport’s paper mill shut down almost 11 years ago, it didn’t just take hundreds of jobs and more than 40 percent of the tax base with it; the closure also left a void in the life of the town and the workers that spent decades making paper. Now, a new museum has opened in its former gatehouse to honor those workers and suppliers. The yearslong process bringing it to life has reunited some of them for a new purpose with a sense of community they missed.

Coast Guard will not remove buoys from northeastern waters

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 21, 2025

The U.S. Coast Guard will not remove over 300 navigational aids from northeastern waters, the military branch announced Monday night. The Coast Guard District Northeast announced in April its plan to modernize its system of navigational aids — many of which were deployed before modern GPS systems became seaworthy. Nearly 150 of the aids that were to be removed are located off Maine’s coast. Maritime stakeholders criticized the plan and over 3,200 comments were submitted. Instead, the northeast branch of the Coast Guard will conduct further analysis of its plan to modernize its system.

Monday’s rain had minimal impact on Maine’s ongoing drought

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 21, 2025

From 4 inches of rain in the Rangeley area to under an inch in the Midcoast and southern regions of the state, the range of precipitation totals across Maine on Monday is having varying impacts on the ongoing drought. Western Maine saw the highest precipitation totals, with 3 inches or more in much of Oxford and Franklin counties. That is enough to put a dent in the drought in that region. However, the low totals on Monday across the rest of the state leave those areas in a “status quo” when it comes to the drought.

Trump Wants To Fire At Least ~300 More National Park Service Staff

NATIONAL PARKS TRAVELER • October 21, 2025

Court documents filed Monday by the Trump administration in a bid to fire more federal employees indicate the National Park Service could lose more than 270 employees, including from the Park Service's Northeast regional office, which oversees Acadia. Overall, the administration wants to fire 2,050 union-represented Interior Department employees. At the National Parks Conservation Association, President and CEO Theresa Pierno said the court filings "offer a glimpse of what’s ahead, with only a small portion of the planned layoffs disclosed so far...[Interior] Secretary [Doug] Burgum’s actions are making it impossible for the Park Service to protect the very places and resources Americans hold dear. Under Secretary Burgum’s watch, the Park Service has already lost more than a quarter of its permanent staff.”

Howland is infested with rats

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 21, 2025

Another Maine town is grappling with a rat invasion. The rat infestation in Howland became an issue beginning in 2023 after a convenience store was torn down. At the time, contractors reported seeing a wave of rats fleeing from the demolished structure. Camden and Trenton in the past year have grappled with containing and reducing the population of rats in their communities. Before that Caribou in Aroostook County and Milford and Old Town in Penobscot County dealt with an abundance of rats.

Future foresters forged in Maine

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 21, 2025

Houlton’s Region Two School of Applied Technology serves students in grades 9-12 from East Grand, Hodgdon, Houlton, Katahdin, and Southern Aroostook. The program offers real-world experience and best management practices to ensure that logging is done safely and sustainably. Students who complete the program are eligible for an apprenticeship through the Certified Logging Program (CLP) and credits through the University of Maine at Fort Kent. The school received a $480,000 John Deere forwarder alongside the two simulators in December 2024, thanks to a Maine Department of Education grant. Houlton’s Region Two School of Applied Technology is just one of several educational institutions that are training the next generation of foresters. The University of Maine has the most extended continuously accredited professional Forestry Program in the United States.

Riding the rivers of history

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 21, 2025

A former log driver and man of many talents has found his niche on the shores of two lakes in the Millinocket region. Ambajejus and Chesuncook lakes both share the waters of the West Branch of the Penobscot River, which once served as a transportation corridor to move wood from the northern forests to Maine saw mills. Chuck Harris worked supporting the log drive in the last years of its existence. That era ended in 1971. But he remained an outdoorsman, working for the Woods Department of Great Northern Paper (GNP).  “I stayed on the water to clean up the booms,” he said. That experience eventually blossomed into a quest to preserve the history of Maine log drivers. “The log drivers were cowboys from the World War II era and they couldn’t tell their stories, so hopefully the museums do,” said Harris as he gave a tour of the Chesuncook Museum where he is in the process of sharing that history.

Northeast (NE) Professional Logger Program

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 21, 2025

The purpose of the the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast (PLC) is to educate and promote logging as a profession to the public, and to serve our members as they provide professional logging services to landowners and the forest products industry. Logging contractors join the PLC because they recognize value in the work we do on their behalf — advocacy, promotion, and support. Safety and risk management have always been a focus of the PLC to ensure its members remain profitable by reducing losses.

PLC of the Northeast holds 30th Anniversary annual meeting

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 21, 2025

The Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast 30th Anniversary Annual Meeting raised a record $165,386 for Log A Load For Kids. Awards were presented to businesses and individuals from across Maine and Vermont for their contributions to the logging industry. This was the second annual meeting of the PLC since its expansion in 2023 from a Maine organization to a regional one serving loggers and forest truckers across the Northeast.