The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 31, 2025
It was a sad ending to an otherwise uplifting tale about a loon rescued earlier this month on East Pond in Smithfield. The loon, taken to Avian Haven, a wildlife rehabilitation center in Freedom, died seven days later after the Dec. 7 rescue. It was emaciated, suffering from a lung infection and had the beginnings of frostbite, according to Avian Executive Director Barb Haney.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 30, 2025
The organization that certifies and supports organic farmers in Maine is cutting six positions in the wake of federal funding losses and in the face of future budget constraints. The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, which also organizes the Common Ground Fair in Unity, announced this month that it would be restructuring, including the cutting of six positions. The association cited the loss of over $1 million in federal and other funding sources in 2025 and budget deficit projections through the rest of the decade. “These changes are necessary to put the organization on a path to financial stability by 2030, and allow for the remaining forty staff positions to have the resources necessary to maintain all core programs that achieve MOFGA’s mission,” the organization said.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 30, 2025
Thieves used a fake commercial driver’s license, spoofed emails and forged papers to steal a truckload of lobster meat worth $400,000 from a Massachusetts warehouse just a few days before Christmas. The Dec. 12 heist from Lineage Logistics, a cold-storage facility in Taunton, is the latest in a string of high-value cargo thefts plaguing the transport industry. In recent years, Maine has accounted for about 90% of the nation’s lobster catch. Maine lobstermen wondered if any of their own catch ended up among the stolen lobster meat. They rarely know where what they catch will end up.
MAINE PUBLIC • December 30, 2025
For about 20 years, Americans interested in improving energy efficiency in their homes could lean on a federal income tax break to help pay for insulation, new windows, and other improvements. That benefit was eliminated as part of Trump's tax and spending law passed by Congressional Republicans over the summer. The tax breaks end at the beginning of 2026. Now vendors are working hard to explain to confused consumers that there's still state money available to help with projects. The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit provided a $1,200 income tax benefit for certain upgrades. But Efficiency Maine offers bigger rebates of up to $8,000 for insulation. The problem is that many prospective customers believe that changes to federal law eliminated all incentives.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 30, 2025
Many Mainers ring in the New Year by getting outside. Across the country, state parks, including those in Maine, offer free events to encourage people to start January with their best foot forward — maybe in a warm sock and an insulated hiking boot. Whether you bundle up for a stroll around the block or scale a remote peak, these Mainers offered up their tips for hiking on the first day of 2026.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 30, 2025
A fake announcement about changes to northern pike regulations claiming to be from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife circulated among Maine’s fishing community Tuesday, including on a popular ice fishing Facebook page. The document, dated Dec. 30, 2025, claimed that northern pike would be reclassified from an “unregulated invasive designation” to a “protected and actively managed fishery resource,” complete with new daily bag limits. However, Mark Latti of MDIFW confirmed that this information is false.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 30, 2025
In a sweeping update to the law, Maine’s 5-year-old ban on products made using toxic forever chemicals is about to expand to thousands of everyday household products, including children’s toys, cookware and cosmetics. On Jan. 1, the state will also require all cleaning fluids, dental floss, menstrual products, ski wax, textiles and upholstered furniture sold in Maine to be free of forever chemicals, or PFAS, a group of manmade chemicals that don’t break down easily in the environment or the body. The 2026 update expands on a law that Maine adopted in 2021 that called for phasing PFAS out of almost all products by 2030. The rollout was delayed after businesses said they needed time to test their products and find reasonable PFAS-free alternatives.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 30, 2025
Electricity rates in Maine are among the highest in the nation, with prices forecast to continue to rise. The average Maine household pays nearly $140 per month to power their home. LD 1730 is a bill before the Maine Legislature that will allow for homeowners and renters to reduce their monthly bill by about $43 by purchasing up to 1,200 watts of solar capacity at a present cost of $3,000. The hearing for this bill is on Jan. 6, 2026. Call our legislators now. ~ Tom Mikulka, Cape Elizabeth
MAINE PUBLIC • December 29, 2025
Timberland owners and state officials hope to resume aerial treatment for spruce budworm next spring. Targeted aerial spraying across 240,000 acres in Aroostook County this spring helped bring the native pests under control and prevent a population surge that could threaten Maine's forest health and economy. Stakeholders plan to spray again this year. But some pockets of elevated budworm populations in Northern Maine are on land owned by small woodlot owners who declined to join the program. The campaign's objective is to prevent the repeat of a legendary budworm outbreak in the 1970s and 1980s that damaged millions of acres of Maine forest and reshaped the forestry industry and state clear cutting regulations.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 29, 2025
It’s clear that as we power more of our lives with electricity, we’ll need to make investments in the state’s power grid to keep things affordable, reliable and clean. But we don’t have to stick to the old ways of doing things, including how we pay for the transmission and delivery of that electricity. There are proven tools and policies that can stabilize and even lower electricity bills, and now that CMP has been sent back to the drawing board, the utility has an opportunity to get it right. It must draft a new proposal that accounts for the reality of unaffordable, price-volatile electricity rates and the necessity of modernizing how we think about the electricity grid. This moment is also a crucial opportunity for the state’s other investor-owned utility, Versant, before filing its next request to the commission. ~ Phelps Turner, Conservation Law Foundation
MAINE NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATORY • December 28, 2025
In this episode, Logan introduces Maine’s rare pitch pine–scrub oak barrens, explaining how glacial sands, fire, and other disturbances shaped these unusual habitats and how development and fire suppression have contributed to their decline. He also reflects on how his nightjar research led him into these ecosystems, which support several rare species despite their limited extent.
MAINE PUBLIC • December 28, 2025
Maine's wood product manufacturing sales increased by 45% according to a report from the Maine Forest Products Council on the economic contribution of the state's forest products sector from 2019 to 2024. Executive director Krysta West says during that period, Maine saw a lot of investment in sawmills, both in the expansion of existing infrastructure and in new facilities that are able to process lower grade lumber that would have previously gone to pulp and paper. "It was a real boom time for that sector of the industry," West says. "Since then, interest rates and inflation have caught up, and it's slowed down significantly in that sector as well." During that same time period, the state's pulp and paper industry continued to contract, with paper manufacturing sales falling by 41%.
MAINE PUBLIC • December 28, 2025
Maine's ban on consumer products with intentionally-added forever chemicals widens at the beginning of the New Year and will sweep in common household items such as cookware, cosmetics and cleaning products. State regulators expect manufacturers and retailers to comply with the new rules which prohibit selling goods containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. A good portion of the marketplace has moved away from using the potentially harmful substances in products, said Kerri Farris, safer chemicals program manager at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
MAINE MONITOR • December 28, 2025
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection recently issued a letter of warning designed to recoup wetlands protections lost in a regulatory oversight more than 20 years ago. The lapse by state and federal regulators allowed a wetlands mitigation site in Belfast to be marketed for commercial development earlier this year. The mitigation deal emerged from the development of credit card giant MBNA’s sprawling campus in Belfast. In exchange for impacts to about seven acres of wetlands, the Maine DEP and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to let MBNA restore wetlands on a nearby 24-acre site, and protect it in perpetuity for conservation and public access. Bank of America acquired the wetlands parcel when it bought MBNA in 2006. It sold the 24 acres at auction this January, but the deed was unencumbered by a conservation easement, because it had never been filed. The new owner is now offering it for sale for commercial development.
MAINE MONITOR • December 27, 2025
Downtown Machias has experienced nine floods at the 100-year level in the past seven years. Ben Edwards, a member of the Upper Machias Bay Master Plan Leadership Committee and vice chair of the Machias Select Board, shared the information during a community meeting earlier this month. Conditions are expected to become more challenging as climate change accelerates, polar ice caps melt, sea levels rise and storms grow more frequent and intense, according to Judy Colby-George, a member of the leadership committee. The meeting, part of a community series, drew about 80 people and was scheduled to focus on downtown flooding in Machias. The next meeting on the Upper Machias Bay Master Plan is scheduled for Jan. 12, and formal recommendations for how to proceed are to be presented to the leadership committee at a public meeting set for Feb. 23.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 27, 2025
Maine is the only state in the U.S. that still has wild populations of Atlantic salmon. The Sheepscot — a modest, 58-mile-long coastal river — is one of a handful of rivers in Maine that still support naturally spawning Atlantic salmon. Despite its smaller size, the Sheepscot plays a vital role in the path to Atlantic salmon recovery in Maine. The Sheepscot is one of only seven U.S. rivers with a genetically distinct population of Atlantic salmon. These fish are uniquely adapted to the local conditions in the river. The survival of this population is critical to preserving the genetic diversity of the species, and therefore, its recovery. Midcoast Conservancy and its partners are working on land conservation and river restoration projects throughout the Sheepscot watershed to help recover this iconic and ecologically important species. This work not only benefits salmon, but other native species and the rich biodiversity of the ecosystem. ~ Melissa Cote, Sheepscot River watershed manager at Midcoast Conservancy
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 27, 2025
I offer only two New Year’s Resolutions for birders in 2026, and they are completely opposite. For less experienced birders: resolve to use every tech tool available. Of course, the fastest and easiest way to get experience is to steal it from someone else. Going out with experts is the time-honored way to learn more quickly. For more experienced birders: resolve to use no tools at all. Bird naked once in a while. ~ Bob Duchesne
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 27, 2025
The University of Maine is working on 10 major capital projects on its campus that will be completed in 2026. The Sustainable Aquaculture Workforce Innovation Center will be a new space for one of the top marine science programs in the country. The space, which will be completed in time for the fall semester, will be used to research sustainable economic development, food security, and climate and community resilience. The building will have several 8-foot tanks and an area for lobster research. Other projects that will finish next year include renovating a PFAS laboratory, funding blueberry research in Jonesboro and building a sawmill training facility.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 27, 2025
Every winter, there are harrowing examples of people in Maine and elsewhere who have broken through the ice, sometimes with deadly results. That’s why Josh Gerritsen, a Rockport-based documentary filmmaker and an avid ice skater on Maine ponds, recently took it upon himself to coach a small group of onlookers how to safely escape the water when it’s mostly frozen over, should they ever fall through. Assess the ice strength, depth and density; know how to identify weak points; and avoid going solo. Help a victim, including by shouting encouragement, extending an object such as a rope or ladder for them to grab or wrap around themself, using a boat to assist and going for professional help: preach, reach, throw, row, go. if you’re the one who goes in, stay calm, spread your arms out on the unbroken ice and kick hard to lift your body onto it, so you can then roll to safety.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 27, 2025
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife provides winter fishing reports with notes on ice conditions and safety guidelines, as well as an ice safety web page with recommendations on checking ice thickness. The Lake Stewards of Maine maintain an ice-in and ice-out map that tracks when lakes freeze over and thaw, based on volunteer observations. Community‑reported ice measurements are available in the Ice Thickness in Maine Facebook group. For the most current location-specific conditions, people traveling from farther away can contact an IFW regional office during the week to speak with a biologist or warden familiar with local waters and how ice usually forms there.
