The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
TROUT UNLIMITED • March 12, 2026
The U.S. Forest Service recently announced its intent to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. This action would remove protections for 58.5 million acres of national forest land across 39 states that are home to irreplaceable fish and wildlife habitat. Roadless areas provide some of the most important habitat for trout and salmon in the United States. They are destination locations for hunters and anglers.
MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • March 12, 2026
Today, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) introduced the Agricultural Management Assistance Act to reauthorize and improve the Partnership for Risk Management Education and the Agricultural Management Assistance (AMA) programs, which help farmers manage financial risk through diversification, marketing, or conservation practices. The AMA program is only available to 16 states that have historically low rates of participation in the Federal Crop Insurance Program, including Maine. U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Angus King (I-Maine) introduced companion legislation in the Senate.
TIMES RECORD • March 12, 2026
March means the opening of Maine’s elver season — one of the most valuable fisheries in the state — often second only to lobster. These tiny, slithery American eels can be worth as much as $2,000 per pound or more. This state-regulated fishery is one of the most restricted and highly competitive fisheries to get into. For 2026, there were only 20 new licenses available through Maine’s lottery system. While there is plenty to say about the American eel, let’s shift our focus to a different type of eel. While Atlantic salmon populations are still very much in recovery, sea lampreys are an anadromous fish that has successfully recovered. Dam removals and improvements to water quality as well as other conservation efforts have brought them back to record numbers. ~ Susan Olcott
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 12, 2026
Access to Maine’s outdoors depends on mutual respect and responsible behavior. When someone ignores the rules or damages property, the consequences can affect everyone. Someone recently rode a snowmobile on trails reserved for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing within Sebago Lake State Park. In some cases it’s not snowmobiles causing a problem, but trucks or other vehicles driving on groomed trails where they don’t belong. Under state law, wheeled motor vehicles are not allowed on groomed snowmobile trails. But recently a UTV driver had not only driven on the trail but had slid off a bridge, breaking railings and signposts and becoming stuck alongside it. One bad actor can undo the hard work of many volunteers.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 11, 2026
Warmer weather returned to Maine this week — and so did the deer ticks. Griffin Dill, Tick Lab manager at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, said on Tuesday, “We are hearing reports this week of people saying they’ve seen ticks crawling on themselves and their pets,” Dill said. “What is emerging now are adult deer ticks who have survived the overwinter and are now looking for a blood meal.” Deer ticks can transmit Lyme disease and other illnesses to humans. Maine logged a record 4,257 Lyme disease cases in 2025, and also reported 1,604 anaplasmosis and 352 babesiosis cases.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 11, 2026
The U.S. Coast Guard rescued three fishermen who had abandoned a sinking vessel off the Maine coast Wednesday morning. A mayday call was received around 7 a.m. from the Vesta Renee, the Coast Guard said in a news release. The mariners reported that they were preparing to abandon ship as it took on water. Coast Guard crews launched a motorboat from the Boothbay Harbor station about 10 minutes later, along with a helicopter from the Cape Cod air station, the Coast Guard said. The 40-foot vessel was located about 23 miles south of Boothbay Harbor around 9 a.m, the Coast Guard said. The three fishermen were rescued from the water soon after. The vessel did not have a life raft or personal flotation device.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 11, 2026
Maine’s outdoor recreation economy generated $3.9 billion in 2024 and is growing faster than industry leaders anticipated. Federal data released this month shows the sector added 4% to the state’s gross domestic product that year, ranking Maine sixth in the nation. Jenny Kordick, executive director of Maine Outdoor Brands, said Tuesday. “We’re facing some headwinds. We have inflation, there’s been tariffs, there’s a lot of consumer uncertainty right now. To see just continued growth in the sector is really encouraging.” The most lucrative activities in Maine in 2024 were boating and fishing, RVing and snow activities, according to the federal data. The largest growth occurred in hunting, shooting and trapping, which generated $64 million that year — a 37% increase from the previous year. Guided tours and outfitted travel were also up 17% and contributed $114 million.
BOOTHBAY REGISTER • March 11, 2026
The bomb cyclone in late February moved through the Northeast relatively quickly, but there did seem to be an impact on some of the ocean-wintering birds. On February, three dovekies were found at Parsons Beach in Kennebunkport. We’ve heard that there may have been still others found and taken to wildlife rehabilitators, with mixed success. A number of thick-billed murres showed up post-storm nearshore as well. Perhaps the most shocking was one that ended up in a snowbank in someone’s backyard in Topsham, about 15 miles from the ocean. That bird was among those picked up and taken to a wildlife rehabilitator. ~ Jeffrey V. Wells and Allison Childs Wells
MAINE MORNING STAR • March 11, 2026
GOP leaders and the Trump administration have used the Congressional Review Act to push for coal mining, oil drilling and copper mining, while attempting to reverse protections for a national monument. The rarely used act gives Congress a few months to revoke new federal regulations. Only in the past year has it ever been used to overrule land management plans. Congress is recklessly throwing out detailed plans created after years of research, public meetings and local collaboration. Lawmakers’ intervention could upend the long-standing management system that governs hundreds of millions of acres of public lands — with consequences that could threaten endangered species and coal miners alike. But the fallout could be much more far-reaching. By using their review authority in a way that was never thought to apply, lawmakers are calling into question the validity of over 100 other plans. It could create legal uncertainty for tens of thousands of leases and permits.
TIMES RECORD • March 11, 2026
A viral YouTube video shared by a friend during COVID lockdown, a fascination with the art of freestyle canoeing and a fondness for Mainer-isms inspired a film written and directed by Samuel Dunning, a filmmaker and actor with roots in Brunswick. Dunning’s mockumentary, “Canoe Dig it?,” about the trials and tribulations of a freestyle canoeing competition in northern Maine, will paddle to local movie screens this spring. “It’s about a fictional competition in northern Maine, but the sport itself of freestyle canoeing is quite real,” Dunning said. “It’s sort of like watching figure [skating], but in a canoe.”
RANGELEY HIGHLANDER • March 11, 2026
Sugarhouses across western Maine will open their doors March 21-22 for the 43rd annual Maine Maple Sunday Weekend, inviting visitors to experience one of the state’s most popular spring traditions. Organized by the Maine Maple Producers Association, Maine Maple Sunday is always the fourth Sunday in March, although many producers open for both Saturday and Sunday with tours, demonstrations and special events. During the weekend, sugarhouses across the state welcome visitors for a behind-the-scenes look at how maple sap is collected and boiled into pure maple syrup. Most locations offer free maple syrup samples, boiling demonstrations and tours of the sugarbush where sap is gathered.
LIVERMORE FALLS ADVERTISER • March 11, 2026
A dense infestation of the invasive aquatic plant swollen bladderwort has spread throughout much of Tilton Pond in Fayette, making eradication unrealistic. Management efforts are shifting toward preventing the plant from spreading to nearby waters, according to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 11, 2026
A prominent grain storage and processing facility in Presque Isle is for sale. Maine Potato Growers Inc., a Presque Isle-based agricultural cooperative, listed its grain terminal at 153 North St. for $1.2 million in late February with RE/MAX County. The company’s grain division once advertised itself as the “largest cooperative marketer of grain in Maine,” but moved away from grain several years ago. It handled feed barley, malting barley, oats, wheat and rye.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 11, 2026
Many people want to help deer survive Maine’s harsh winters and assume putting out food is the best way to do that. But feeding deer can sometimes do more harm than good. What deer truly rely on to survive winter in Maine is high-quality winter habitat — dense conifer forests known as deer yards. They depend on thick stands of cedar, hemlock, fir and spruce for shelter and winter food. These forests also create shallower snow conditions that allow deer to move more easily, reach food and evade predators such as coyotes. For landowners who believe they may have deer wintering habitat on their property, intensive harvesting should generally be avoided when possible. Instead, lighter harvests removing 30 percent or less of the stand can help maintain canopy cover while improving forest health. ~ David Irving, licensed forester
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 11, 2026
A former sporting camp on a nearly 10-acre private island in the North Maine Woods is for sale for $2.4 million. The 9.6-acre Zella Island sits in the northern part of Fish River Lake in the North Maine Woods and is dotted with modernized cabins. The property is in Aroostook County’s Unorganized Territory, west of Portage Lake. Accessible only by boat or seaplane, the site was established in 1895 and served as a hunting camp for more than 100 years until the sellers bought it nearly two decades ago.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 11, 2026
The state of Maine and the tribes came out of the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA) with opposite understandings of what the state’s Maine Implementing Act said. Multiple actions by the state have since interfered with tribes’ attempts to independently run their affairs — and, in the tribes’ minds, denied them the core aspects of sovereignty they had negotiated in the Implementing Act. Things have gone downhill since. The best way forward is to adopt LD 785 now before the Legislature to implement the recommendations of the Task Force on Changes to the Maine Implementing Act. That will finally give internal matters the meaning long encoded in the canons of federal Indian law. ~ Evan Richert, former member of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission; Roger Milliken, board chair, Baskahegan Company
DAILY BULLDOG • March 10, 2026
High Peaks Alliance has launched a campaign to conserve Walrath Woods, a 120-acre property along the Sandy River in Strong, ensuring free public access for hiking, fishing, hunting, and foraging for generations. Walrath Woods was created to honor Doug and Sherry Walrath’s 40 years of land stewardship. It reopens a one‑mile trail with new parking, kiosks, and sustainable features that make the area easier and safer to enjoy. The project will offer year-round recreation, including foot travel, snowshoeing, and skiing, close to home for Strong and Farmington families. High Peaks Alliance has secured $210,000 in funding through the Maine Trails Program and the Davis Family Foundation, with additional grants pending. With a total project budget of $275,000 covering land acquisition, environmental assessments, and trail development, the Alliance seeks further donations to secure 1.7 miles of riverfront, which serves as critical habitat for Atlantic salmon.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 10, 2026
Three northern Maine communities broke temperature records Tuesday even as winter was preparing to mount a comeback, the National Weather Service said. Bangor’s high of 70 degrees Tuesday marked the earliest in the year the area has seen such a high temperature since data there began being recorded in 1925. Millinocket, which recorded a high of 70 degrees, and Houlton, with a high of 64, also broke similar records for their communities. Angela LaFlash, a meteorologist at the weather service’s Caribou office, said, “It’s a big upper-level trough that has been piping warm air from down towards Mexico all the way up to the Northeast.” However, that’s also going to be responsible for some wintry precipitation in northern and interior Maine.
MAINE PUBLIC • March 10, 2026
On an unusually warm late February day in Oxford, the Oxbow Beer Garden’s groomed trails are filled with skiers of all ages. The trails are open to skiers and snowshoers. About half a mile down the trail hidden in the woods sits the Hut, a little building that serves drinks to trekkers as they sit around campfires. Dozens of skis are leaned against trees as people gather together in ski boots. Nordic skiing’s accessibility is a large draw for many skiers, especially newcomers. “It's just so important to get out in the air and the sun and the outdoors in the winter. When you have a sport that you enjoy, or…even just walking, it entirely changes your outlook,” Cindy Talbot says.
MAINE MONITOR • March 10, 2026
The Lubec Shellfish Committee met Monday to discuss the proposed Woodward Point rotational closure, ongoing efforts to address septic contamination in town and several permitting issues, including whether to “grandfather in” out‑of‑town permitholders. There was also an update on the town’s clam seeding program, which is scheduled to launch in spring of next year. With more harvesters attending than at any meeting so far this year, the committee announced plans to begin the Woodward Point rotating clam flat closure later this year.
