Toxic algae bloom suspected in midcoast shellfish die-off

HARPSWELL ANCHOR • September 19, 2026

Clam diggers and other harvesters are reporting huge shellfish die-offs in mudflats around Harpswell. The town’s harbormaster and marine resources administrator, Darcie Couture, said it may be linked to a type of algae that’s not toxic to humans but is known to kill shellfish. Clam digger David Wilson, who is the chair of Harpswell’s Marine Resources Committee, said he noticed “a wicked smell” as he approached the mudflats yesterday near Pennellville, on Middle Bay in Brunswick. He said at first he thought it might be a dead whale that had washed ashore, but as he and the diggers he was with got closer, they saw dead and dying clams spread across the mud.

Column: Rare birds turned up on this wild Maine boat trip across the Canadian border

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 19, 2026

I spent last week birding Grand Manan. Prior to that, I spent three days birding Campobello. I can testify that the area around Cobscook and Passamaquoddy Bay is some of the best birding in or near Maine, due to the abundant variety of habitats influenced by the strong tides and maritime climate. Ocean birding on both sides of the border has been above average this month. After several down years, the number of sooty shearwaters offshore has rebounded. Jaegers from the Arctic and south polar skuas from the Antarctic are mixing it up out there. It’s a fine time to be an adventurous international birder. ~ Bob Duchesne

State Forester Patty Cormier recognized with Public Service Award by Maine Forest Products Council

DAILY BULLDOG • September 19, 2026

The Maine Forest Products Council recognized Patty Cormier, Director of the Maine Forest Service, with the organization’s prestigious Abby Holman Public Service Award at its Annual Membership Meeting. Presented by Maine Forest Products Council Vice President Alex Ingraham, the award recognizes Cormier’s dedication to sustainable forest management, wildfire prevention and community leadership.

Tri-Town recreation workshop set for Sept. 30 and Oct. 1

ADVERTISER DEMOCRAT • September 18, 2026

A workshop on Recreation Economy for Rural Communities will be held Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at Spruce Mountain Ski Lodge, bringing together residents and community partners from Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls. The workshop is intended to help the three towns advance recreation and economic development projects while building on the region’s 2025 recreation and facilities master plan and exploring ways to create inviting public spaces and experiences.

Clinton Thompson’s Journey From Maine Marine Patrol to Schiller’s Boat Captain

BOWDOIN (COLLEGE) ORIENT • September 18, 2026

Clinton Thompson has spent more time in Casco Bay than most people have spent in their backyard. For 25 years, the Maine coast was his patrol territory as a Marine Patrol officer for the state. Now it’s the water he drives Bowdoin students through to do research for classes. As marine operations manager at the Schiller Coastal Studies Center since 2023, Thompson runs the boats that make most of Bowdoin’s hands-on coastal science possible, from eelgrass surveys to eider duck tracking. Students who spend a semester or a single lab period on his boats get to know him well.

Unidentified body found on Katahdin

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 18, 2026

An unidentified person was found dead on Katahdin on Monday, according to the Maine medical examiner’s office. The body was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for an autopsy, spokesperson Lindsey Chasteen told the Bangor Daily News on Friday. The cause and manner of death are pending further studies. Baxter State Park has not released any information about the death. Maine State Police and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife were both unaware of the death.

'Trap and truck' — Meet the aquatic Uber helping to restore Maine's Atlantic salmon

MAINE PUBLIC • September 18, 2026

For the last two decades, Maine has tried to restore salmon on the Kennebec by trapping fish at the Waterville dam and carrying them by vehicle almost 60 miles away to lay eggs in the rich spawning grounds of the Sandy River. It's called "trap and truck." A Maine Department of Marine Resources team is on call 14 hours a day, almost 6 months a year, to collect fish almost as soon as they get to the dam. Timing is important. If the salmon linger too long in the warm water below the dam after an exhausting migration they could drain their energy reserves or even compromise their fertility. A driver will show up every time there's a call, even if there's just one salmon. Advocates acknowledge that trap and truck is inefficient, time consuming and expensive. But unless and until the Kennebec River dams are removed, it's the only way to ensure this run of endangered Atlantic salmon doesn't disappear forever.

Is it time to rethink the Northeast’s cap-and-trade system?

MAINE MORNING STAR • September 18, 2026

Twenty years ago, a group of Northeastern states signed on to a plan to reduce the greenhouse gases spewing from power plants by making generators pay for the carbon they release. Since then, the region’s power sector emissions have dropped by half, and states have reaped more than $10 billion in revenue to invest in energy programs. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, looks like a success. Two decades in, however, the price power plants pay for each ton of carbon emissions is more than 12 times what it was at the beginning, clean energy development in the region faces daunting challenges, and emissions have started creeping back up. A growing chorus of voices is now questioning whether RGGI is still worth the investment at a time when soaring power prices are straining household budgets.

Opinion: Work across the aisle will protect Maine’s night sky

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 18, 2026

Maine’s night sky is one of those assets that sets our home apart from other places. That’s why we two very different legislators — a liberal Democrat and a conservative Republican — partnered this past session to advance a modest and practical new law to help ensure that our children will enjoy the same night skies that we love. The Maine Legislature enacted that law, effective this Oct. 1. The world is experiencing a biodiversity crisis, with 40% of animals and 34% of plants at risk of extinction. Unnecessary and overextended use of outdoor lighting will only continue to place ecosystems at risk if we don’t put protective measures in place. The new law requires government-owned and publicly funded facilities to follow those responsible practices for new or replacement lighting. ~ Sen. Stacey Guerin, R-Penobscot, and Rep. Laurie Osher, D-Orono

South Portland air monitoring shows elevated toxin levels

MAINE PUBLIC • September 18, 2026

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department for Environmental Protection have released their findings from a six-year study of air quality in South Portland, which is home to more than 100 oil tanks. The findings show that while there is little short-term health risk for residents, the long-term health risks are somewhat elevated. Officials have said the overall health risk to residents is likely minimal but warrants further study. Maine DEP and CDC officials will hold a public meeting at the South Portland High School next month to present the report to the community, answer questions and explain next steps.

Midcoast town wins dispute with CMP over solar project proposal

MIDCOAST VILLAGER • September 18, 2026

After months of regulatory uncertainty that town officials said cost Northport much of a summer’s worth of solar power, the Maine Public Utilities Commission has sided with the town in its dispute with Central Maine Power over a proposed municipal solar array on Beech Hill Road. In an advisory ruling issued Sept. 15, the three-member commission unanimously determined that a provision of Maine’s recently revised net energy billing law does not prohibit Northport’s proposed 38-kilowatt solar project from participating in the state’s net energy billing program.

Environmental groups argue transmission corridor failing to meet conservation standards

MAINE MORNING STAR • September 18, 2026

Despite more than four hours of discussion on the conservation requirements for the long-embattled New England Clean Energy Connect project, the state environmental board held off on making a final ruling on the issue. Instead, the Board of Environmental Protection on Thursday directed department staff to review its proposed order and add additional analysis before it is revisited. Last year, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection approved the project’s conservation plan as part of the construction of 53 miles of new transmission line through western Maine. An appeal of the department’s decision—filed by the Appalachian Mountain Club, Maine Audubon, Natural Resources Council of Maine and Trout Unlimited—said the conservation plan “categorically fails” to meet the standards set by the board, calling it a “shell game on multiple levels.” 

Vandalism and bad behavior in Acadia spark concerns about staff shortages and funding cuts

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 18, 2026

Rocks painted neon pink, trash left behind in a wooded area and a rise in misbehavior have locals questioning the staffing levels in Acadia National Park. Last year, with more than 4 million visits recorded, Acadia had its busiest year since the park’s new visitation counting method began in 1990. August was only the second time the park has surpassed 800,000 visits in one month. Between the influx of visitors and cuts to funding and staffing implemented by President Trump, locals are noticing the strain. The recent vandalism isn’t the only instance in which park visitors have left their trace this summer. A bright pink smiley face was graffitied onto a tree, as well as on boulders and a footbridge. Friends of Acadia had to dismantle as many as 150 rock stacks on Bar Island. Locals have also reported instances of visitors disobeying park rules, such as swimming in a public water supply and speeding e-bikes on carriage roads.

As the water level drops on a coastal Maine pond residents question fish hatchery 1

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 18, 2026

Dianne O’Donnell has seen Craig Pond’s water level get unusually low before in the 77 summers she’s spent there, but this year she’s especially worried. It is a drought year, but the rest of the watershed hasn’t shown such dramatic decreases — and unlike Craig Pond, none of those lakes and ponds have recently become the sole water source for a federal fish hatchery producing the eggs of more than 5 million endangered Atlantic salmon a year. It’s another example in Maine of property owners around a body of water raising concerns about how water levels are managed as infrastructure ages and uses change. Numerous dams in the watershed that were built to supply papermaking in Bucksport are also aging as an industrial owner seeks to abandon some of them, and low water levels have also drawn concern at Graham Lake in Ellsworth, where a dam’s federal permit has expired and some are calling for its removal.

Maine woman harvests sea salt on remote offshore island

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 17, 2026

As a child of Matinicus, Usha Beaudoin spent a lot of time scrambling over slippery rocks. On an island only two miles long by one mile wide, she was always at the water’s edge, curious, investigating tide pools, discovering what remains on land when the ocean recedes. Time, tide, and the sun are always making salt here, drawing crystals naturally from the water all around. Beaudoin’s trajectory changed with the Covid-19 virus. She had been employed as a medical assistant in Portland. But the island wanted her home. She and her partner returned to Matinicus, the most remote year-round inhabited island in Maine. Through trial and error that she landed on the simplest, and for her the best method of manufacturing salt the way Mother Nature intended. This is wild salt in all its jagged, craggy, shape-shifting beauty.

Acadia nixes plans for electric bus fleet

MAINE PUBLIC • September 17, 2026

Electric buses won’t be coming to Acadia National Park. Instead, the state intends to replace its current bus fleet with new low-emission vehicles. The decision stems from a need to expand the bus fleet and a perception that the Trump administration wouldn’t release the funding for the electric buses. The U.S. Department of Transportation said, “hardworking taxpayer dollars will no longer fund Biden-Buttigieg’s costly DEI and climate agenda.”

Wildlife encounter calls are up in Maine, but rabies cases are not

MAINE PUBLIC • September 17, 2026

State officials say calls about human encounters with wild animals are up this year in Maine, but the number of rabies cases has not increased. The U.S. CDC issued an advisory last week about an increase in calls nationwide regarding human exposure to rabies. Officials in Maine said the increase in calls is due to more encounters with bats. State wildlife biologist Tegwin Taylor said part of the reason is that this is a time of year when bat pups leave their roosts. "The other good thing that may be contributing to why we're seeing more interactions lately is that our bat populations are actually increasing in the state," Taylor said. Bat populations were decimated by white nose syndrome several years ago.

Maine environmental board delays final decision on NECEC conservation plan

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 17, 2026

The Maine Board of Environmental Protection delayed final consideration Thursday of the validity of the conservation area associated with the controversial New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line. The board met for five hours in the Augusta Armory to consider an appeal from environmental groups, which argued the project’s conservation plan did not meet standards for habitat connectivity and mature forest conservation. The board had ordered the conservation plan in 2022 to mitigate habitat disruption caused by the NECEC transmission line, which cut a 150-foot-wide swath through 53 miles of rural, forested landscape. Members of the board said Thursday that they need more information from the Department of Environmental Protection staff to determine if the area does, in fact, mitigate the disruption of habitat.

Canaan man charged with manslaughter in boating death of Skowhegan man

CENTRAL MAINE • September 17, 2026

Charles J. Frost, 22, is charged with one Class A count of manslaughter and one Class C count of operating a watercraft under the influence causing death. Frost was driving the boat on the Kennebec River from which Jakub Prokop, 21, was ejected on July 4. Frost told game wardens he and Prokop “were doing circles and jumping waves.” Frost said he did a “sharp turn” when Prokop was ejected. He said he tried to rescue Prokop from the river but could not reach his body while it sank. Prokop was not wearing a lifejacket.

Planning board hears from public on Rumford growth plan

RUMFORD FALLS TIMES • September 17, 2026

The Rumford planning board’s draft town comprehensive plan provides a 10- to 12-year roadmap to guide future growth, land use, infrastructure investment and economic revitalization tied to the area’s natural assets. During a public hearing Sept. 9, resident Jeff Secrest pointed out that data centers are a step into the future and Rumford is in a nice position and could take advantage of this situation “and make it known to industries who wish to create a data center that they can bring their power plants and data center into our midst.”