As winter approaches and the ground freezes, dry wells could stay dry through spring

MAINE MONITOR • November 8, 2025

According to the National Weather Service, “overall conditions are still running significantly below normal, with most of the region running between 30 percent to 60 percent of normal” rainfall. Allyson Hill, the director of the Oxford County Emergency Management Association, said she has been hearing reports of homeowners refilling their wells from local water sources. Water gets into wells from the water table in the ground. It is then filtered through sand and clay and rocks. Dumping water into a well bypasses those natural filters, according to Hill, and can introduce bacteria and water into a home. “You should never pour,” Hill said. There is another complication looming. Once the ground freezes, drought conditions are usually locked in until spring because water cannot dissipate down to wells when the ground is frozen.

Wetland boardwalk could be built next to new Ellsworth courthouse

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 8, 2025

A project to build a new quarter-mile road to a site where the state plans to construct a new $55 million judicial center could lead to other improvements and developments around the courthouse site, Ellsworth officials said. A parking lot for the Down East Sunrise Trail could finally be built in Ellsworth near the new courthouse site. The nearest public parking for the roughly 90-mile trail, which extends east from Ellsworth to Pembroke in Washington County, currently is three miles away. The courthouse development also opens the possibility of building public access into the Card Brook wetland. If the city gets an easement on part of the state-owned courthouse property, it would look into building a boardwalk trail.

Column: Swarovski’s new AI binoculars can identify 9,000 bird species

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 8, 2025

Technology is advancing so fast, it’s hard to keep up. Swarovski Optik’s new AX Visio binoculars use built-in GPS and image-recognition AI to know where you are and what you’re looking at. Supposedly, these new binoculars can identify 9000 bird species with reasonable accuracy. The binoculars cost over $5000 to identify a bird in your backyard. I’ll come over to your house and do it for half that price. Scientific advances are making a difference on the landscape, too. University of Missouri researchers are using drones and artificial intelligence to monitor migratory water birds more safely and accurately. BirdCast combines radar data with weather forecasts to predict migration waves. AI connected to BirdCast could automatically dim the lights on tall buildings to reduces mortality in migratory flyways. It could also power-down wind turbines. With modern tools, many people don’t need to sharpen their personal identification skills. Ultimately, AI can only do so much. ~ Bob Duchesne

Column: Why would you find a dead bird in your bird house?

SUN JOURNAL • November 7, 2025

Why would there be a dead bird in a bird house, especially with its eggs? Unfortunately, a common problem for cavity nesting species comes from competition with non-native species that also want to use those cavities, in this case, a bird house. The most common culprit is the house sparrow, also known as the “English sparrow” because they are an Old World species. They are very aggressive and will go into an occupied box and peck the adult bluebirds to death. Even native species will compete with bluebirds and sometimes show “agonistic behavior.” Should you be cleaning out your bird houses now? The easy answer is yes, clean them out and give birds a fresh start next year. Many parasites, especially mites, move into old nest material, so removing those is helpful. ~ Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Doug Hitchcox

Step-by-step: Training through Franklin County’s local trails a lesson in endurance

LIVERMORE FALLS ADVERTISER • November 7, 2025

I started when my treadmill broke, forcing me to head outside. What felt like an inconvenience turned out to be a blessing. Getting outdoors, breathing fresh air and soaking up natural vitamin D was far better than staring at a wall indoors. I noticed wildlife, the changing light through the trees, and a kind of calm I never got from a machine. Best of all, hiking and walking were free, saving me the cost of a new treadmill while giving me something much more valuable. Walking, jogging and hiking aren’t just for exercise. They improve cardiovascular health, lower blood pressure, strengthen the heart and support a healthy weight. Walking can also boost mood and mental health, helping to reduce stress and anxiety.

Scarborough on track to become a ‘Tree City’

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 7, 2025

Scarborough is one step closer to becoming an officially designated “Tree City.” The Town Council voted Wednesday to adopt a tree care ordinance to regulate the planting, maintenance and removal of trees, shrubs and other plants on town property and public rights of way. The ordinance also establishes a Tree Care Advisory Board, a new body that will develop a list of desirable trees to plant, record and share tree planting information, support tree-related education programs and oversee Arbor Day activities.

A dozen communities in Maine are Tree Cities

MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • November 7, 2025

There are more than 3,400 Tree Cities USA. To be a Tree City, the community must meet four standards set by the National Arbor Day Foundation and the National Association of State Foresters. The following communities in Maine have been designated Tree Cities USA: Augusta, Auburn, Bath, Bangor, Dover-Foxcroft, Farmington, Hampden, Kennebunkport, Portland, South Portland, Westbrook, Yarmouth.

Woodland Pulp pausing mill operations until end of December

MAINE MONITOR • November 7, 2025

Woodland Pulp announced to its employees on Tuesday that the company will pause manufacturing at its Baileyville pulp mill and wood chip plant from late November to mid-December. During that month-long hiatus, the company will temporarily lay off 144 employees at both facilities, said Woodland Pulp spokesperson Scott Beal. Woodland Pulp is Washington County’s largest employer, and the layoffs will apply to about one third of the mill workforce. Beal attributed the “extended downtime” to declining prices in the global pulp market. “The tariffs, the uncertainty with markets, pullback on consumption, all of these factors are impacting all of the facilities, including Woodland right now. It’s all kind of a perfect storm,” said Dana Doran, executive director of the industry group Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast. Woodland Pulp is one of Maine’s last major mills.

Letter: Pooches and people: Who bears the responsibility for curbing waste?

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 7, 2025

As a keeper of eight dogs, I found the Oct. 28 op-ed (“Maine dog owners need to curb the unwanted baggage“) hilarious and objectionable. Hilarious mostly because of the photo that accompanied it. Upon searching the photo for evidence of dog owner irresponsibility, all I saw were discarded fast food containers. Human waste? Not dog waste. I am fed up with people who think that dog poop is a natural fertilizer to be left behind in nature. I regularly remind clueless dog people that what our dogs leave behind has no environmental value whatsoever. ~ Lisa Lane, Waldoboro

Maine blueberry growers hope for emergency aid to offset nearly $30M loss

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 7, 2025

Extreme weather made for a hard year for Maine’s wild blueberry industry, and the season’s losses have leaders looking for emergency funds to help keep growers in business. Overall, growers brought in about 54.9 million pounds of berries this summer, “a pretty significant loss” that represents close to $30 million in estimated lost income, according to Eric Venturini, executive director of the Wild Blueberry Commission. Sen. Susan Collins earlier this week asked USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to include Maine wild blueberry growers, apple orchards and hay farmers as it considers releasing emergency funding.

BLM nominee Steve Pearce’s record shows hardline anti-public lands positions

THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY • November 6, 2025

The Trump administration announced the nomination of former New Mexico Rep. Steve Pearce to lead the Bureau of Land Management yesterday, tapping an anti-public lands hardliner to lead the nation’s largest land management agency, which oversees some 245 million acres of public lands. Pearce has championed the sale of public lands, opposed the protection of national monuments (including in his home state), worked to protect oil and gas companies from paying higher royalties to taxpayers and suggested that he wants to reverse the “trend” of public land ownership. 

Drought wilts Maine’s apple and blueberry yields

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 6, 2025

This year’s drought is taking a heavy toll on Maine’s apple crop. Production is down 50% for the state’s biggest apple growers. The production of wholesale-ready apples is down about 60%. Maine’s wild blueberry growers reported a 31% production decline and $28 million in losses. Maine is entering its fourth month of drought. It has caused wells to run dry, rivers and lakes to run low, and the number of wildfires to increase. It is also driving up water and electricity costs for farmers struggling to keep the fields and livestock watered, especially on hot days. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, asked U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins this week to offer disaster assistance to Maine’s specialty crop and livestock producers to offset damage caused by extreme weather, high production costs and labor shortages.

Portland is mapping out what city transportation will look like over the next 20 years

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 6, 2025

Portland is moving to take a holistic look at transportation in the city, seeking proposals for a comprehensive plan that officials say will set the stage for how streets, sidewalks, buses, bikes and ferries work together over the next two decades. The plan is expected to explicitly build on three of the city’s other major long-term undertakings: the comprehensive plan and policy guide known as Portland’s Plan 2030; its climate strategy, One Climate Future, a joint undertaking along with South Portland; and a rewrite of land-use rules dubbed ReCode.

New solar farms in Presque Isle will be shielded from view

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 6, 2025

The Presque Isle City Council has approved changes to the city’s land use ordinance designed to hide large solar arrays from public view, reaching a compromise with its planning board after several months of back and forth. New commercial solar facilities in the city will now have to be set back 100 feet from a paved road, 400 feet from any residence, and buffered by four rows of trees, the council decided on Wednesday.

Climate change boosted Hurricane Melissa’s destructive winds and rain, analysis finds

ASSOCIATED PRESS • November 6, 2025

Human-caused climate change boosted the destructive winds and rain unleashed by Hurricane Melissa and increased the temperatures and humidity that fueled the storm, according to an analysis released Thursday. Melissa was one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall and brought destructive weather to Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Cuba, causing dozens of deaths across the Caribbean. Roofs were torn off of homes, hospitals were damaged, roads were blocked by landslides and crop fields were ruined. The rapid analysis by World Weather Attribution found that climate change increased Melissa’s maximum wind speeds by 7% and made the rainfall 16% more intense.

Column: Maine’s working farms are key to thriving deer and hunting traditions

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 6, 2025

Healthy deer populations don’t happen by accident. Habitat quality is the foundation, and working farmlands play a crucial but often overlooked role. Deer thrive along habitat edges — where forest meets farmland — because those areas offer both food and cover. Farm edges provide the best of both worlds: open foraging with nearby escape routes. Maine lost 82,567 acres of farmland between 2017 and 2022 — about 16,500 acres each year. In that same period, 564 farms disappeared. As farmland disappears, hunters are experiencing some of the best deer hunting in decades. Maine’s recent hunting success isn’t accidental. It’s the result of a landscape that works — a balanced mosaic of farms and forests providing everything deer need. But that landscape depends on farms remaining viable and families continuing to work the land. ~ Samantha Burns

Letter: Elevating coastal buildings in Maine is a fool’s errand

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 5, 2025

A recent Press Herald article described the decision by a South Portland family (in the wake of January 2024 storms that damaged their home) to elevate the structure 5 feet, resting it on pylons at a cost of $500,000. They have the money, required permits and a contractor specializing in this type of work. The article pointed out that home elevation projects are increasing in Maine. But global warming, rising sea levels and the growing intensity of storms are real. Storm-related property losses are increasing dramatically — people are dying. Reconfiguring existing structures to elevate them 3, 5 or 10 feet above storm water contour lines should be prohibited. South Portland’s zoning amendment permitting the elevation project is an abdication of governmental responsibility. ~ Orlando Delogu, Portland

Opinion: Solving Maine’s PFAS problem requires accountability from producers, not just landfills

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 5, 2025

For decades, industrial companies such as DuPont and 3M have manufactured PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — that have been used in everyday products like clothing, furniture, packaging and carpeting. These chemicals, often called “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment, can accumulate in municipal wastewater treatment systems. Passive receivers of biosolids — like landfills or composting facilities such as Hawk Ridge in Unity — are left to manage the consequences of PFAS they neither created nor caused. Casella, which acquired Hawk Ridge Compost Facility in 2000, has operated the facility in compliance with applicable regulations for more than two decades. Yet, following Maine’s 2022 ban on the land application of biosolids and compost derived from biosolids, and after extensive dialogue with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Casella has made the difficult decision to close the facility. We must work collectively on upstream solutions and not just focus solely on downstream regulations. Policymakers at all levels should ban PFAS-containing products and producers of these chemicals and the manufacturers who use them must be held legally responsible for environmental cleanup. ~ John W. Casella, chairman and CEO of Casella

Opinion: Maine has the skilled workers. It needs paths to clean energy jobs.

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 5, 2025

Across the state, immigrants, veterans and young adults are eager to fill the jobs needed to meet Maine’s climate goals. The problem isn’t a lack of talent, it’s that the pathways into clean energy careers are fragmented, underfunded and confusing. Maine’s Clean Energy Industry Report (2024) found that our clean energy workforce has grown to 15,600 workers but must double to 30,000 by 2030. That means training the equivalent of every student in Portland High School every year for the next five years. Without a clearer plan in sight, we are destined to fall short. The Maine Department of Energy Resources could consider three linked reforms: long-term workforce planning, workforce-tied financing and a clean energy workforce trust fund. These are not abstract bureaucratic ideas; they are the foundation for an inclusive, stable energy transition. ~ Roxanne Heuschkel coordinates Maine’s Clean Energy Partnership Program at Biddeford Adult Education

Jay advances storm-resilience efforts as state releases new plan

LIVERMORE FALLS ADVERTISER • November 5, 2025

Jay is already carrying out many of the steps recommended in Maine’s new statewide infrastructure resilience plan, work that began after severe flooding damaged multiple roads, Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere told the Select Board Oct. 27. The plan comes from the Maine Infrastructure Rebuilding and Resilience Commission, a group established in 2024 to study how communities can better prepare for stronger and more frequent storms.