5 places off the beaten path in Acadia to visit this summer

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 23, 2026

As Acadia National Park welcomes more visitors every year — the park recorded more than 4 million visits in 2025 — some locals and tourists prefer the park’s quieter, lesser known attractions, the spots that aren’t often advertised by tour guides and park rangers. There are still quite a few spots where locals and visitors can enjoy the park’s beauty without facing the summertime crowds.
• Schooner Head Road shore access
• Baker Island
• Airplane wreckage
• Schoodic Institute path
• Ravens Nest

Column: Something crazy happened during this spring’s bird migration in Maine

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 23, 2026

Food availability is the chief reason birds migrate. Maine hosts an abundance of insects in May, as you may have noticed, and the days are longer. Daylight length remains constant at the equator. At this time of year, there’s more daylight to feed hungry chicks in Maine than there is in Ecuador. Birds are anxious to reach their nesting destinations as quickly as possible so they can claim the best territory and woo a mate. Neotropical migrants arrive in spring and leave in autumn. That sounds simple. It’s anything but. There’s drama in the treetops for those who notice. ~ Bob Duchesne

Maine gear sharing opportunities you should know about

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 22, 2026

For many Mainers, the biggest obstacle between staying home and heading to the great outdoors is not motivation. It’s the cost. A quality backpack, tent, canoe, or pair of skis can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And often, that equipment only gets used a few times each year. Fortunately, a growing network of gear-sharing programs is working to lower that barrier by lending outdoor equipment for free or at a low cost. You can find a comprehensive list of these programs at the Maine Gear Library Network hub at mainegearshare.org.

How a fire at a Maine lumber mill went from bad to much worse

MIDCOAST VILLAGER • May 22, 2025

The firefight on May 15 at Robbins Lumber mill in Searsmont went from bad to worse when a five-story silo suddenly exploded, shooting up in the air before crashing down into a warehouse filled with some 5 million board feet of lumber, ready for delivery. A 27-year-old volunteer firefighter was found dead at the scene and 12 others were wounded, some seriously enough to be evacuated to burn units in Boston. Three members of the Robbins family, who have owned the mill for generations and are often upheld as model local business owners, were among those injured. Some people were burned so severely that they could not be immediately recognized. At least three firetrucks were destroyed. And one of Waldo County’s biggest employers and economic engines was taken offline indefinitely.

Six magical Maine places

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 22, 2026

Here are six magical Maine places where you can get away from it all, feel inspired, and not have a bunch of cellphones and chit-chat distracting you.
• Mariaville Falls • Mariaville
• Ecotat Gardens • Hermon
• Langlais Art Preserve • Cushing
• Little Long Pond Natural Lands • Seal Harbor
• Katahdin Iron Works State Historic Site • Brownville
• Mount Waldo • Frankfort

Maine buys second PFAS-contaminated farm

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 22, 2026

The state has bought a second farm poisoned by forever chemicals, acquiring a 45-acre property in Unity abandoned by its owners after they discovered their water, fields, produce, and even their blood were saturated by dangerous toxins. Adam Nordell and Johanna Davis grew organic vegetables at Songbird Farm for almost eight years before they learned a previous owner had spread sewage sludge-based fertilizer on the fields decades ago. At the time, the state encouraged it; no one knew it was dangerous. After going public five years ago, Songbird became the public face of Maine’s forever chemical crisis. The couple closed the farm and began looking for a way they could move their family off of the contaminated parcel and begin seeking medical treatment.

Bar Harbor can only enforce passenger limits for cruise ships in July and August, judge says

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 22, 2026

A federal judge ruled this month that Bar Harbor can only limit the number of passengers coming ashore from cruise ships in July and August. In other months, the town cannot enforce an ordinance that caps daily disembarkments at 1,000, the ruling said. Voters approved that rule as a referendum in 2022, and local businesses sued the town in response.

I’m outside every day. Here’s how I survive black fly season in Maine.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 22, 2026

You can expect them to be out from mid-May to mid-June. If it’s warm, they can be out in early May. Don’t bother with anything DEET or a head net. Get a product with picaridin. Currently I’m toting Sawyer and Ranger Ready insect sprays. Good luck out there. ~ Susan Bard

On land and at sea, Maine food producers prepare for the season

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 22, 2026

It’s not just fruit and vegetable farmers who begin their work in earnest in the spring. Oyster farmers bring their cages to the surface. For goat farmers, it’s kidding season, and the cheeses produced during this time of year have a specific flavor that only comes from spring pastures. The season of regrowth means work for many food producers when the weather starts to warm.

Opinion: Developer’s proposed power facility is a bad idea for Portland

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 22, 2026

One current development in downtown Portland that has not been attracting the attention it should is developer Portland Foreside’s proposal to build and operate a 20-megawatt natural gas-fired electric generation plant on its redevelopment property at the eastern end of the Portland waterfront. This has all the earmarks of a developer maneuver that will redound to the disadvantage of condo buyers and tenants in the project itself, ratepayers of the local electric utility, residents of the East End neighborhood and the overall welfare of the city of Portland, its business community and its inhabitants. ~ Peter L. Murray, Portland

Opinion: Push to ‘supersize’ aquaculture is not right for Maine

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 22, 2026

President Trump’s calls to “supersize” the American aquaculture industry, outlined in a May 14 Guardian article, are increasingly framed as a path toward seafood independence and domestic food security. But in Maine, where industrial salmon farming operates, the reality is far more complicated. Maine is now the last place in the United States where Atlantic salmon are raised in open ocean pens, in the same coastal waters where endangered wild Atlantic salmon migrate and persist. In the context of ocean farming, the environmental concerns surrounding industrial salmon farming include nutrient pollution from fish waste and excess feed, the spread of parasites and disease in densely stocked pens and the risk of farmed fish escaping and interacting with wild populations that have evolved over thousands of years. ~ Crystal Canney,Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation; Dwayne Shaw, Downeast Salmon Federation

Opinion: Maine is working to avoid a catastrophic spruce budworm outbreak

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 21, 2026

The last spruce budworm outbreak, from the late 1960s through the early 1990s, killed 20 to 25 million cords of spruce and fir across northern Maine and cost the state’s forest economy hundreds of millions of dollars. Salvage clearcutting reshaped the landscape and poisoned the politics of Maine forestry for a generation. The current budworm outbreak began in Quebec around 2006 and has since caused severe defoliation across more than 15 million acres of spruce-fir forest. Its leading edge has already crossed into Maine. But this time, Maine isn’t waiting for the hillsides to turn brown. In 2025, the Maine Budworm Response Coalition, a partnership of landowners, the Maine Forest Service, University of Maine scientists, and industry partners, treated 241,416 acres of forest with low-toxicity insecticides. Treated sites experienced roughly a 95% decline in budworm populations. The math is working, and the forests are holding. ~ Naresh Khanal, graduate student in natural resource economics, UMaine

Waterville teens are asking for dark skies. The city is listening.

CENTRAL MAINE • May 21, 2026

A group of high schoolers wants a clear view of the night sky, and it’s helping the City Council make that happen. The Waterville Youth Council is currently drafting an ordinance to regulate public lighting in Waterville to reduce light pollution and promote dark skies. Youth council co-chairs Penny Graham and Taylor Amuso said they picked light pollution as their issue because it’s a fixable problem. When lights are off, the pollution goes away. When cities design their lighting fixtures to keep the sky dark, they prevent the pollution. They also save money.

The sun might be shining, but Maine’s waters are still dangerously cold

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 21, 2026

Spring might have finally arrived in Maine, but inland and coastal waters are still dangerously frigid. On a single day in May, the state saw two paddling deaths, one a sea kayaker near Deer Isle and the other a paddleboarder on Graham Lake in Ellsworth. Lindsey Chasteen, a spokesperson for the state medical examiner’s office, said cold water could have been a factor. Officials said they believe neither person was wearing a life jacket. State officials and people who work in outdoor recreation said a warm day can give paddlers and swimmers a false sense of security. Michael Daugherty, a registered Maine guide, described “the 1-10-1 rule.” A capsized paddler has one minute to get control of their breathing, 10 minutes before losing the ability to perform basic functions such as a self rescue and one hour in the water before losing consciousness because of hypothermia. His own interpretation is even more stark. “You either get out of the water immediately,” he said. “Or your chances are grim.”

The secret weapon for combatting black flies

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 20, 2026

Jokingly referred to as the “Maine State Bird,” black flies are one aspect of the Maine outdoors that most people would prefer didn’t exist. The female black fly feeds on blood for the nutrients it needs to lay hundreds of eggs. Black flies also contribute to a healthy freshwater ecosystem, serving as food for a wide variety of larger animals, including Maine native brook trout. While black flies can’t be avoided entirely, there are many things you can do to lessen the number of times you’re bitten when spending time outdoors. In addition to wearing repellent, it can be helpful to wear a hat, which will prevent black flies from crawling into your hair and biting your scalp. Glasses or sunglasses will shield your eyes, which black flies tend to be drawn to. “We suggest people who are gardening put a hardhat on and smear it with baby oil,” said Jim Dill, a pest management specialist with UMaine Cooperative Extension. “Those [black flies] will get stuck in the baby oil.”

One Nation, Under Fraud: The Penobscot Remonstrance and the Fight for Sovereignty

JESUP MEMORIAL LIBRARY • May 20, 2026

MDI Historical Society, Abbe Museum, and Jesup Memorial Library will host a panel discussion offering a critical examination of Maine's historical and legal relationship with the Wabanaki Nations. Drawing on archival records—including the 1942 Maine Legislative Research Committee hearings—and landmark court decisions such as Murch v. Tomer and State v. Newell, the discussion reveals how law and policy were shaped to control, diminish, and deny Wabanaki sovereignty. At Jesup Memorial Library and on Zoom, Bar Harbor, Sept 10, 5 pm.

Letter: Maine voters should prioritize the environment

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 20, 2026

Maine has made great progress eliminating pollution and protecting the environment. The Maine Climate Council reports that our forests, farmland, grasslands and wetlands offset 91% of Maine’s carbon emissions. However, much remains to be done. Voters need to focus on candidates’ positions on the environment. The Trump administration’s support of fossil fuels, defunding of renewable energy and gutting agencies that conduct research and collect data needed to address the climate change we see all around us must be resisted. Only we the voters can do it. Ed Muskie must be rolling over in his grave. ~ David Griswold, Auburn

Janet Mills calls Acadia’s $100 non-US resident entrance fee ‘ridiculous’

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 20, 2026

Gov. Janet Mills said on Wednesday that the Trump administration’s policy of charging higher entrance fees for non-U.S. residents visiting national parks — like Acadia — is “ridiculous” and “foolish.” “It’s not going to raise any money because they just won’t come,” Mills said.The statement comes after President Donald Trump implemented a $100 fee for all non-U.S. residents who visit 11 of the country’s most popular national parks, including Acadia National Park. A standard park pass for visitors with U.S. residency is between $20 and $35. The new fee — required for all non-U.S. residents who are 16 and over — started on Jan. 1.

Column: Why Maine game warden pilots are a special breed

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 20, 2026

Sooner or later, most career game wardens place themselves in harm’s way in the line of duty. The same can be said for game warden pilots, perhaps even more so. Maine warden pilots are often called upon to assist from the air in searches for missing people. More often than not, the weather is nasty, and warden pilots find themselves flying in dangerous conditions close to the treetops. On May 12, Maine game warden pilot Joshua Tibbetts, 50, lost control of his Cessna 185F and crashed near Schoolhouse Pond north of Farmington. He did not survive. Other Maine warden pilots were involved in fatal crashes in 1956, 1972, 2003 and 2011. Tibbetts, and all the Maine game warden pilots before him, are a special breed. We appreciate their sacrifice. ~ V. Paul Reynolds

Wyeth Foundation’s donation preserves Christina’s Maine world for the public

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 20, 2026

The field in Cushing that was the setting for Wyeth’s masterpiece has been donated to the Georges River Land Trust for the public to enjoy.