Letter: Clean up Portland’s streets

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 2, 2026

Walking through Portland — particularly along Washington Avenue — I have been increasingly discouraged. What should be clean city streets are instead marred by overflowing litter, dog waste bags, broken glass and ignored garbage by businesses and home owners. We need a new approach to civic pride. During a recent visit to Charleston, South Carolina, I was struck by how immaculate the city remained thanks to a team of “ambassadors” funded through a local merchant association. Portland should consider two paths: • Shared responsibility: Require property owners to take active ownership of the sidewalk and curb immediately in front of their businesses. • A dedicated workforce: Enact a modest fee to fund a professional “ambassador” program for consistent maintenance. ~ Clean sidewalks are the foundation of a thriving city. It is time we stop accepting the status quo. ~ Michael Harris, Portland

Opinion: Maine fishermen’s bodies are breaking down. Where’s the help?

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 2, 2026

Commercial fishing in Maine is breaking the people who sustain it. Four out of five fishermen report overuse injuries — torn shoulders, damaged knees, chronic back pain — from work that hasn’t fundamentally changed in generations. Most don’t retire from the job. Their bodies give out first. We know how to reduce that damage. What’s missing is consistent federal support. This isn’t an abstract policy debate — it’s being decided right now in the federal budget process. Programs like Sea Grant do more than fund research. They support the training, safety systems and local partnerships that keep fishermen on the water longer and in better health. Fishing communities cannot rebuild their workforce or protect their health one budget fight at a time. If Maine wants a future on the water, Congress needs to fund it — deliberately and as policy. ~ Chris Payne, Cumberland, graduate student, University of New England

Column: Something is missing from my yard this spring. Rat poison might be why.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 2, 2026

I haven’t seen a chipmunk in my yard since November. Perhaps there’s a particularly talented short-tailed weasel haunting my neighborhood. They prowl my yard in some winters, but I usually see them or their tracks when they’re around. I fear that the reason I haven’t seen a weasel this year is for the same reason I haven’t seen a chipmunk. Rat poison. The poisons-du-jour are known as second-generation rodenticides, or SGARs. They are anticoagulants. A critter that ingests the poison dies from internal bleeding. The poisons are contained in bait stations sized for rodents, too small for pets or other animals to enter. The problem is that any predator that later eats the rodent gets poisoned by proxy. SGARs are working their way up the food chain. ~ Bob Duchesne

Bond to support farm and forestry funding will not be on November ballot

MAINE MONITOR • May 1, 2026

Washington County farmers face mounting economic uncertainty, but they will not see a proposal for relief funds on the November ballot. Lawmakers made several attempts to revive L.D. 2094, a bill that would have directed a $45 million bond into existing grant and low‑interest loan programs for farmers and the forestry sector. The legislative session ended in mid‑April with the bond proposal stalled between the House and Senate, without a consensus. “Farmers aren’t looking for a handout,” Shelley Megquier, policy and research director at Maine Farmland Trust, said. “It’s heartbreaking, but not devastating,” she added, referring to the lack of funding secured for agriculture during a time when economic futures are historically unstable from drought and tariff price hikes, among other concerns.

Donald Trump backs Jared Golden’s bill to extend pause on federal lobster rules

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 1`, 2026

President Donald Trump came out in support of U.S. Rep. Jared Golden’s bill to extend a pause on federal regulations intended to protect endangered whales, bolstering a top priority for Maine lobstermen. The White House issued a Friday letter saying the Republican president would sign the measure if Congress sent it to his desk. Golden’s measure would extend the six-year pause that was negotiated as part of a 2022 spending bill for another seven years into 2035.

The ice is out on Maine’s largest lake

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 1, 2026

Ice-out on Moosehead Lake was declared at 8:30 a.m. Friday. Currier’s Flying Service made the annual call. The earliest recorded ice-out was April 14, 1945, and the latest was May 29, 1878. The declaration traditionally signals the start of the summer tourism season on one of Maine’s most popular lakes.

Maine saw fewer visitors in 2025 but they spent a record amount of money while they were here

MAINE PUBLIC • May 1, 2026

The Maine Office of Tourism is reporting that the state saw 650,000 fewer visitors last year, but they spent more than $9 billion, a record high. State Tourism Director Carolann Ouellette said the tourism marketing effort known as Forged by Nature celebrates all things Maine and that appeals to visitors. "What's important to us as Mainers, from working waterfronts, working landscapes, farms and forests, and just who we are as a people. That's what makes Maine special to our visitors," Ouellette said.

Maine’s largest oil power plant wants to skirt clean air requirements

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 1, 2026

State environmental regulators are moving toward a deal that would let Maine’s largest oil-fired power plant skirt the latest pollution controls, igniting a debate over whether the aging facility is a vital energy safety net or an expensive smog-producing relic. The Department of Environmental Protection has issued a draft order for a clean air exemption for Wyman Station on Yarmouth’s Cousins Island. Owned by NextEra Energy, the peaking plant runs mainly when there is high demand for electricity or when other plants go offline. The decision carries consequences for both the region’s energy security and its climate mandates as New England struggles to prevent blackouts during extreme weather while transitioning away from fossil fuels.

Opinion: Water is the leading public health challenge for Maine’s gubernatorial candidates

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 1, 2026

I had a bill this year, LD 2115, that would have created a fund to pay for well testing, abatement, remediation, installation and maintenance of filtration systems, the provision of bottled water, and even facilitating connections to local water districts when possible. Despite bipartisan support, the bill died for lack of funding. I challenge my fellow Democrats running for governor and also the independents and Republicans: Commit (in writing!) that people on wells in both rural Maine and unconnected parts of populated areas will be able to look at your next biennial or supplemental budget this January and see actual initiatives and language that show you’re going to take even a modest bite out of this $1.3 billion problem. A small amount of consistent, sustainable funding will go an incredibly long way. ~ Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick

Aroostook had one of its worst winters for snow. It didn’t stop snowmobilers.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 1, 2026

In the long, dark months that bridged 2023 and 2024, Aroostook County saw its worst winter in decades. On paper, this winter was worse. Two fewer inches of snow fell, and heavy December rain wiped out most of the accumulation from an early storm. Then it got cold. Really cold. The rain froze to ice and established a thick base layer for snow to accumulate on top of. And despite just two storms producing 4 or more inches of snow, the trails remained in good shape, bucking trends of recent years. Chris King has never seen a winter with such little snow be so successful for snowmobiling. “Not in my 38 years,” King, the president of the Limestone SnowHawks snowmobile club, said. But clubs have also gotten better at working with less snow. They borrow from the sides of trails and build berms in open fields and other problem areas where strong winds can carry snow away.

Sour economy looms over Maine’s upcoming tourist season

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 1, 2026

Many people whose livelihoods depend on the state’s $16.5 billion tourist industry are watching uneasily as the season takes shape amidst an affordability crisis that has pushed gas, health care and food costs to punishing highs. At the same time, the U.S.-led war in Iran is dragging on and international visitors are staying away. Fewer visitors came to Maine in 2025 than the year before — tourism numbers fell by about 4%. Of particular concern to Mainers: Visits from Canadians are down more than 20%.

Burgum Defends Proposed Cuts To Park System Budget During Committee Hearing

NATIONAL PARKS TRAVELER • April 30, 2026

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum insisted this week that efficiency could make up for a 40 percent reduction to the National Park Service maintenance budget, and vowed that a proposed $10 billion "Presidential Capital Stewardship Program" would not fund projects like President Donald Trump's massive proposed triumphal arch in Washington. Along with Park Service cuts, Trump's budget request asks Congress for a $10 billion “Presidential Capital Stewardship Program” dedicated to the nation’s capital. Burgum insisted the funds are intended for maintenance. Yet the amount dwarfs the roughly $2 billion that the Interior Department has estimated is the amount of the Park Service's deferred maintenance backlog for Washington. "There's [sic] no dollars that are in that project for future theoretical proposed projects," the secretary replied when asked by Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, what the additional $8 billion was for and whether the money would fund the so-called Independence Arch that Trump wants to build in Washington.

A New Archive Tells the Human Stories Behind Maine's Land Claims Settlement

BOWDOIN COLLEGE • April 30, 2026

At the Ramp Gallery at Bowdoin College photographs accompany the stories in a new Wabanaki initiative called “Beyond the Claims: Stories from the Land and the Heart.” The opening of the Wikhikonol exhibit on April 22 was part of a celebration for a new archive at Bowdoin called “Beyond the Claims: Stories from the Land and the Heart.” A panel discussion and reception at Bowdoin followed.

Bangor cuts hours for park near the library

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 30, 2026

The city is cutting hours for the park next to the Bangor Public Library beginning Friday. That comes as the city grapples with a new homeless encampment in Peirce Park. The Harlow Street park, which features a monument to lumbermen whose labor fueled the wealth of the city’s lumber barons, will now be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Maine investigates oil spill along the Kennebec River

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 30, 2026

State and federal officials are investigating the source of a small weekend oil spill in the Kennebec River in Clinton that observers said covered up to a mile of shoreline. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection notified federal officials Sunday about the spill, according to a report obtained by the Bangor Daily News. The spill involved an industrial-grade lubricant called No. 6 oil, sources said. State officials are working with their federal counterparts to determine the source and size of the spill, a DEP spokesperson said Thursday. The spill occurred downstream of Sappi’s Somerset Mill in Skowhegan.

Opinion: Maine must realize that quality of life and progress are not mutually exclusive

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 30, 2026

The people of Maine need to realize that we can still have the quality of life we enjoy so much and also embrace progress and development. If we prevent progress and development by passing moratoriums on data centers, not building highways, protesting Amazon and complaining about the rising costs electricity, our taxes will continue to rise, our progress as a species will be set back and our taxes will force people to move out of state. As Henry David Thoreau put it, “Man is an animal who more than any other can adapt himself to all climates and circumstances.” Thoreau understood that we are part of the plan for this planet, not just interlopers. ~ Noah Miner, Gorham

Why the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer is still a page-turner

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 30, 2026

The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer was first published in the spring of 1976 by David DeLorme. Fifty years later, it’s still in print, sold at gas stations and convenience stores and crammed between the seats of countless Maine trucks and cars. It’s inspired at least one song and one Maine-made beer. People hold on to their dog-eared, tattered and coffee-stained Gazetteers for years not just because they are dependable, but because they spark imagination and adventure.

Column: Maine streams are changing right now. Here’s what trout are doing.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 29, 2026

By April, trout are beginning to look upward, having awakened from their semi-dormant state and willing to rise to a hatching bug or a hook wound with a bit of fur or fluff if drifted with skill. I often wonder if more of us spent time along the bank of a stream or in a field of wildflowers there would be less strife in the world. If only we could appreciate those simple gifts found just outside our door, we might be more willing to set aside our prejudices, less inclined to dredge up old grievances, make war. ~ Bob Romano

EPA Announces $468,000 to Protect Waterways from Sewage Overflows in Maine

ENVIRONMENAL PROTECTION AGENCY • April 29, 2026

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of approximately $80 million through the Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grant program to help communities address stormwater and sewer infrastructure needs. These grants will strengthen systems that safely capture and manage stormwater to help prevent contaminants, including untreated sewage, from polluting nearby waterways. The agency will provide funding from both fiscal years 2025 and 2026 totaling $468,000 to Maine, which will be awarded to communities here.

One night a year, humans command this march of frogs and salamanders

GRIST • April 29, 2026

On a Tuesday night in April, beneath a sky mottled with clouds, a slick stretch of road in Cumberland, Maine, erupted in sound. It started with a few high-pitched chirps, like the coos of chicks. Within minutes, dozens, then hundreds more joined a chorus punctuated by low clucks. By the time the sun dipped below the horizon and rain began to splatter the pavement, the sound had risen to a din. Cars stopped on the shoulder and people spilled onto the road wearing neon vests and waving bright flashlights. They fanned out, and raised their voices as they spoke, like guests at a bustling cocktail party. “I got a big one!” called a youngster in a yellow raincoat. She held out her hand for other volunteers who crowded around her. A yellow-spotted salamander about 9 inches long stretched across her gloved palm, its slick tail draped between her fingers.