Opinion: Think of nature as a sanctuary

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 2, 2026

When we think of “holy spaces,” many of us picture stained glass windows, rows of pews, or polished stone floors echoing with hymns. But what if the most profound sanctuaries are not enclosed by walls at all? What if a spiritual presence waits not in a building, but in the soil beneath our feet, the rain on the trees or the quiet stillness before dawn? It is time we start recognizing the sacred in the living world around us. The forest isn’t a place you visit to find the sacred. It’s a place where the sacred has always been. We should stop trying to fit religion into a white box with four walls. Go outside and experience the sanctuary that is always there — nature. ~ Kathryn Gatewood, graduating senior at UMaine, studying ecology and environmental sciences

Opinion: New year, new opportunity to break America’s stagnation

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 1, 2026

A new year provides the chance for a clean slate, and perhaps this time we’ll get one. 1968 seems a moment very much like our own. A crisis of confidence shattered trust in government and in many of our institutions. Yet 1968 and the era it represents was also a spur to social movements. Yes, national politics since then can seem like one great oscillation between the two major parties. But we can see that Maine on the whole has certainly progressed. If you’re seeking an education or an interesting job, there is far more opportunity than there was back then. Maine is also a cleaner and safer state. The difficult part of history is that periods of progress are followed by years of stagnation, then drift. Discontent is the beginning of change. We’ll know soon whether the young will confound their elders, and decide whether this will truly be a new year. ~ Douglas Rooks

Opinion: Here’s what would make America great again

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 31, 2025

It may be time to consider what might make us “great” moving forward, rather than somehow trying to recapture the past given that certain episodes were far less than “great.” It would be great if we would…Foster good government that preserves our fiscal and natural resources for a sustainable future. ~ David Casavant, Hampden

Two Coves Farm shuts down in dispute between farmers, landowner

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 31, 2025

A dispute about rent, productivity and other issues has led to an arbitration ruling ordering the longtime operators of Two Coves Farm on Harpswell Neck to vacate the property. Joe and Laura Grady, who have lived and farmed at the 110-acre coastal property for 16 years, were ordered to leave by the end of 2025 after an arbitrator found they had violated the terms of their lease. The Gradys said they strongly disagree with the ruling and plan to appeal it. Perhaps the largest working farm in a community where commercial-scale agriculture has largely disappeared, Two Coves recently suspended operations because of the legal dispute. The farm is the property of Neils Point LLC, owned by Helen Norton, a Harpswell Neck philanthropist. Norton pointed to the arbitrator’s findings and said she plans to work with Maine Farmland Trust to identify new tenants who will operate the farm in line with its conservation easement and long-term vision.

Loon rescued on Smithfield pond dies a week later

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.

Column: Who’s the Toughest Bird at the Feeder?

BOOTHBAY REGISTER • December 31, 2025

With the recent snow has come an increase in bird activity at our feeders and the small patches of open ground we’ve cleared under them. When all the birds are trying to access the limited space available, it’s not surprising that there seems to be more situations in which one species displaces another and takes over the feeding opportunity. Researchers asked participants in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch to record the winners and losers of such competitive interactions. It won’t shock even the most casual of bird observers to learn that they found that the largest birds were at the top of the list of most dominant. ~ Jeff and Allison Wells

MOFGA cuts 6 positions

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.

Authorities investigating theft of $400K worth of lobster

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.

As federal home efficiency tax breaks expire, Maine moves ahead with its own incentives

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.

Starting the New Year in Maine on a high point — or peak

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.

Fake announcement misleads Maine anglers about northern pike regulations

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.

Maine’s PFAS ban expands to consumer items on Jan. 1

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.

Letter: Plugging into solar can help reduce our electric bills

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's spruce budworm pesticide campaign enters second year

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.

Opinion: Utility reform will be key to confronting Maine’s high energy bills

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’s Pine Barrens, part 1

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.

New report says Maine's wood product manufacturing sales rose 45% between 2019 and 2024

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 expands PFAS products ban in 2026

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 regulators issue warning letter for Belfast wetlands lapse

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.

Upper Machias Bay Master Plan moves forward nearly two years after destructive downtown flood

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.