Dispatches from the Wild: Project 2025’s assault on the wild

BIG SKY • September 28, 2026

Project 2025 was never merely a campaign document. It was a blueprint for dismantling the laws, agencies and scientific safeguards that protect America’s air, water, public lands and wildlife. Less than two years into the Trump administration, much of that blueprint has become federal policy. The damage is already spreading across landscapes and ecosystems, while some of its most dangerous proposals remain unfinished. In September 2026, the administration finalized regulatory changes that weaken how the Endangered Species Act, is implemented, including removing the regulatory definition of “harm” to distinguish between accidental and intentional killing, and revising protections for threatened plant and animal species. This administration seems to want only more profit, more extraction and more greed. At what cost? The potential tragedy of Project 2025 is not only what could be lost, but how casually loss is treated. The public won’t even notice until things are gone.~ Benjamin Alva Polley

Northern Mainers fear they can't afford heating bills this winter

MAINE PUBLIC • September 28, 2026

The community action program that serves Aroostook, Washington and Hancock Counties said it is getting up to 200 voicemails a day from residents who are anxious about how they will pay their fuel bills this winter. Some are reporting that their fuel tanks are empty. "We've had some households that have been without fuel for over a month and are just at the critical point that it's starting to become unbearable," Parent said. Heating oil prices in Maine have now topped six dollars a gallon. Maine's U.S. senators have unsuccessfully urged the Trump administration to release HEAP funds early this year.

Maine PUC staff recommends rejecting CMP's temporary rate hike

MAINE PUBLIC • September 28, 2026

Maine Public Utility Commission staff recommended that state utility regulators reject Central Maine Power's request to impose a temporary rate hike as the commission continues debating the company's request for new long-term prices. Groups that oppose CMP's proposal to raise about $189 million in long-term electric distribution rates argue it is too early in the lengthy rate negotiation process to grant any new increase. But CMP said it is facing significant financial pressure and needs a short-term cash infusion to cover investments it has already made. The company is seeking to increase customer bills about $7 a month in October to cover $69 million in costs.

Fact brief: Is releasing a pet rabbit into the wild considered animal cruelty in Maine?

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 28, 2026

Yes. Deliberately releasing a pet rabbit into the wild and leaving it there is considered animal cruelty under Maine law. Intentionally, knowingly or recklessly abandoning an animal is generally a Class D crime. It becomes a more serious Class C crime if the animal dies as a result, or if the offender has at least two prior animal cruelty convictions. Prosecutors may instead pursue a civil violation, carrying a fine up to $5,000 for a first offense and $10,000 for subsequent offenses.

Column: Olfactory Superpowers

DAILY BULLDOG • September 28, 2026

Black bears have an olfactory bulb that is five times larger than that in the human brain and possess 100 times more sensory tissue lining their nasal cavity – both of which account for why a black bear’s nose is some 2,000 times more powerful than our own. Coyotes, foxes, and other canids also have an exceptional sense of smell, possessing more than 50 times the number of olfactory receptors as humans. Canids can also direct their nostrils independently in order to detect smells coming from different directions. If you asked a snake to describe how it senses odor, its response would be literally tongue-in-cheek. Birds also rely on their olfactory sense in everyday life. While we primarily take in the landscape with our eyes and ears, many other animals absorb the world through their sense of smell. ~ Michael J. Caduto

Wild Blueberry Land among new additions to Maine's most endangered places list

MAINE PUBLIC • September 28, 2026

Four sites have been added to Maine's 2026 list of most endangered and at-risk places. They include Wild Blueberry Land, shaped like a giant blueberry and located on Route 1 in Columbia Falls. The dome itself is structurally sound, according to the nonprofit Maine Preservation, which compiles the annual list. But blueberry farmers Marie and Dell Emerson, who own the property, say it's time for someone else to take it on.

How to start mountain biking in Maine

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 28, 2026

The New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA) has eight chapters in Maine that often host group rides, create new trails and maintain existing ones. Their calendars and social media pages have more information about upcoming meetups, including those suited for beginners. There are also Facebook pages for mountain biking in Maine, including 207 MTB, and Maine Adaptive is another organization that has been running mountain biking and cycling programs for years. Chris White, chapter president for the Penobscot Region, also leads rides at Rose Bike in Orono. “If there’s a spot where people struggle, we stop, and we talk about it,” White said about his beginner events. “We just all keep going through it until everyone is successful.”

Waste buried in the woods shows how hard it is to rehab Maine’s abandoned factories

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 28, 2026

To take on costly messes at abandoned and hazardous industrial sites throughout the state, the Maine Legislature in 2022 established a land bank. Maine has at least 330 contaminated former manufacturing sites known as brownfields, nearly half of them in rural areas.

Column: Eyes on deer work differently than ours, and it mostly works to their advantage

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 28, 2026

Deer and many other animals have a layer on their retina called the tapetum lucidum. When light strikes the retina, some of it hits light receptive organs called rods and cones. The rest strikes the tapetum and is reflected back so that more is absorbed, then ultimately transmitted to the brain for interpretation. That’s one reason deer see better in low light, but it’s not the only reason. They have larger eyes than we do, which allow more light to reach the retina. There, cones process color while rods are sensitive to light in general, and further help with visual perception in low light. A deer’s rods are much bigger than ours, and bundled three to each nerve ending, offering still greater advantage. The deer still win far more often, but we only have to win once. ~ Bob Humphrey

A data center developer has quietly eyed Bucksport’s former mill site

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 28, 2026

A company recently visited the site of Bucksport’s former paper mill with interest in developing a data center there. That information was shared publicly for the first time Thursday when the Town Council considered a temporary data center ban, which was introduced as a way to buy time to update regulations around such developments before any formal proposal came in. Bucksport’s lingering infrastructure from its mill — deep water access, a power plant, a fresh water supply — and the mostly vacant site itself make the town more realistically attractive to data center developers than many other Maine communities that have adopted such bans.

Column: It’s getting harder to find good places to hunt and trap in Maine

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 28, 2026

It’s happening more and more these days. Large pieces of property are being bought up, posted and erased from the list of once accessible hunting grounds, forcing more and more hunters onto less and less land. Some are hunters themselves, just trying to escape a fate so many others face. Some are nonhunters who want to own a piece of our beautiful state to enjoy in peace and quiet with no interest in allowing any type of access. And when you think about it, who can blame them? It’s their land and their right, but is it right? ~ Chris Sargent

Power outages, downed trees surge across coast amid weekend nor’easter

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 27, 2026

Thousands were without power Sunday afternoon as the weekend’s nor’easter continued to batter the state, according to Central Maine Power and Versant Power outage trackers. Most outages were concentrated along the coast, where winds were reaching up to 45 mph, with a few reported inland outages.

Here’s what’s in Yarmouth’s new plan for safer streets

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 27, 2026

The Yarmouth Active Transportation Plan, approved by the Town Council on Sept. 17, updates the town’s 2015 Bike and Pedestrian Network Plan with new priorities and modernized practices and design standards for slowing traffic and protecting pedestrians. “We are getting increasing concerns and input from residents about speeding and dangerous driving and wanting safe routes,” said Chair of the Yarmouth Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee Colin Durrant. 

Conservation Bus Tour of Lincoln County, Oct 14

NEWS CENTER MAINE • September 27, 2026

From coastal communities to working farms, Lincoln County offers a wonderful glimpse into the agricultural and natural resources that make Maine special. This year’s tour will highlight three local producers who are putting conservation into practice—protecting soil and water resources, supporting wildlife habitat, and building sustainable agricultural operations. Hear from the Ag producers, Conservation District staff, and Amanda Burton with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, about the conservation practices implemented on the farms. The narrated tour on an air-conditioned motor coach includes transportation, snacks, and a catered lunch. October 14, 2026, at 8:30 AM, $65.

Opinion: Get out for a walk, forge new memories

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 27, 2026

It is very early. Before pancakes and Cheerios, before the adults have had coffee or truly opened their eyes, before the fog has lifted from the meadow, it is time for a walk. The dew is in the funnel spider hammocks. The woodland nightshift is clocking out; the day shift beginning. So there’s a chance to see a deer or porcupine finishing their grazing. The birds are the soundtrack: red-eyed vireo, catbird, bobolink, song sparrows are in voice. ~ Todd R. Nelson

Opinion: Free Maine’s yards from political yard signs

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 27, 2026

Yard signs may not be carcinogenic, but they are toxic. It will take grassroots efforts, political will and legislation to remove yard signs from our lawns. Doing so may mend fences, clear the air, improve the political climate and perhaps save a few trees. In the Pine Tree State these would be welcome changes. ~ David E. Stein, Oquossoc

Humor column: No peeping zone

SUN JOURNAL • September 27, 2026

Oh, heeeere we go. The return of foliage season, a time during which otherwise perfectly sane people will violently slam on their brakes on a 70-mph stretch of blacktop, throwing all passengers violently into the dashboard, just to look at a bunch of dying leaves. “Look how pretty that tree is!” they will exclaim, with almost a religious fervor, as they casually peel the windshield visor off their foreheads. Meanwhile, other drivers will slow to 10 mph on that same stretch of road to take in the same dead leaves while long-suffering, seasonally disordered folks like myself pound our steering wheels and wait for opportunities to pass. You leaf peepers are nuts. ~ Mark LaFlamme

Old Town wants a new agreement to keep hosting Juniper Ridge

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 27, 2026

The Juniper Ridge Landfill has operated in Old Town since 1996, but a proposed expansion and an ongoing lawsuit over its environmental impact have opened new negotiations between the host communities and landfill. Negotiations between Casella Waste Systems, the company that operates the landfill, and the state and Old Town are ongoing. John Dieffenbacher-Krall, an Old Town resident, has been one of the citizens speaking at council meetings urging the city to enter a new agreement that would better protect residents from potential environmental harm and create a closure date for the facility. “This is sacrilege. This is an environmental abomination,” he said.

World Rivers Day, Sep 27

World Rivers Day is a celebration of the world’s waterways. It highlights the many values of rivers and strives to increase public awareness and encourages the improved stewardship of rivers around the world. Millions of people in more than 100 countries participate in World Rivers Day on the 4th Sunday of September.

Column: Fall migration is happening now, and these birds are about to get your attention

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 26, 2026

Many birds sneak away in autumn. We never see them going. One day, they are here. The next day, they are not. In spring, birds arrive hot to trot. They rush to claim a territory and woo a mate. They sing like crazy. You hear them the morning they arrive. That doesn’t happen in autumn. Most of our treetop birds are departing for the tropics. Our ground-feeders aren’t going that far, so they leave later. ~ Bob Duchesne