Maine’s moose season opened with rain, but these hunters still found success

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 29, 2026

Maine’s moose season opened Monday in the rain, with wet weather from a nor’easter expected to continue through Tuesday. Despite the gloomy skies and damp woods, the weather didn’t deter hunters, with several moose brought to check stations across the state. As of noon Tuesday, 148 moose had been tagged. The state allocated 1,150 bull permits for the week across 16 wildlife management zones.

Skowhegan discusses public forum on Weston Dam sale

DAILY BULLDOG • September 29, 2026

More than a year after Brookfield Renewable sold the Weston Dam to The Nature Conservancy, the Skowhegan Select Board remains unclear about the transfer’s status and its potential effects on the town. The sale cleared the way for The Nature Conservancy to pursue the decommissioning and removal of the Weston Dam and three other hydroelectric dams on the lower Kennebec River. Brookfield will operate the dams while The Nature Conservancy conducts a broader study of the dam system and gradually transfers operational oversight to the Kennebec River Restoration Trust, a nonprofit the parties formed when they completed the sale. That transfer will happen before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approves a decommissioning plan, an intensive regulatory process that could take most of a decade.

As heating oil prices hit record highs, Mainers are eyeing winter with growing trepidation

MAINE PUBLIC • September 30, 2026

Heating oil prices in Maine hit a record high last week, at $6.02 a gallon on average. It'll now cost an extra $740 to fill a standard 250-gallon tank than a year ago. On top of the global market turmoil triggered by the U.S. - Iran war, heating oil, which is similar to diesel, is also affected by limited refining capacity, which has taken a hit from fighting in the Middle East and in Ukraine. "As a result, we're seeing very tight supplies for diesel and heating oil," said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. Democrats in Maine and across the country are laying the affordability issue at the feet of Republicans.

Fungi and Flesh: William Henry Hunt’s Watercolors and the Politics of Technique

BOWDOIN COLLEGE • September 29, 2026

In 1858, William Henry Hunt painted an extraordinary little watercolor called Fungi, now in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s collection. In this talk, Professor Pamela Fletcher offers a close reading of the painting and its contexts, connecting the materiality of Hunt’s technique to the questions of ecology, pollution, beauty, difference, and vision that shaped both the Victorian world and our own. At Bowdoin College, Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center, Brunswick, September 30, 7:30 pm.

Ecology of New Hampshire's 4,000-Foot Mountains

Ecology of New Hampshire’s 4,000-Foot Mountains is the first comprehensive ecology and natural history guide organized around New Hampshire’s iconic 48 4,000-foot peaks. Publication date November 1, 2026.

Missing man found dead after falling off boat in Blue Hill

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 29, 2026

James Kannry, 82, a resident of Blue Hill and Virginia, was reported missing on Sept. 20, and investigators believe he fell off a boat. Maine Marine Patrol and other agencies searched the area for several days with no success. On Tuesday, a 911 caller reported locating a body in the water in Blue Hill, roughly five miles from where Kannry was believed to have fallen into the water.

Springworks Farms' Lisbon headquarters for sale

MAINE PUBLIC • September 29, 2026

Springworks Farm, a major regional producer of greenhouse grown lettuce, has shuttered and is selling its sprawling Lisbon headquarters. Broker Mike Carey said in a press release that the 168-acre campus including greenhouses, support buildings and a farmhouse will be sold in a "lender-ordered" auction in mid-October. Springworks was founded in 2014 as an aquaponic farm that grew lettuce and fish with a recirculating indoor water system. The company said its method significantly reduced resource inputs while allowing it to grow greens all year round. Its customers included Hannaford and Whole Foods supermarkets. According to its website Springworks could grow five million heads of lettuce and 160 metric tons of tilapia a year.

Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine introduces bill to protect presidential monuments from demolition

WMTW-TV8 • September 29, 2026

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, has introduced a bill to protect official monuments to U.S. presidents. Pingree, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, unveiled the Protecting Presidential Memorials Act this week. The proposal would mandate an act of Congress to demolish any congressionally designated memorial, like the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial or the Kennedy Center.

After holding out, Cumberland votes to start design of Casco Bay Trail

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 29, 2026

After tabling it this summer, the Cumberland Town Council on Monday approved $12,000 toward the start of the first section of the Casco Bay Trail. Cumberland had been the lone holdout among the four communities along the initial leg of the trail to approve the federally required funding. The Casco Bay Trail, a planned 72-mile loop from Portland to Auburn and over to Brunswick, would be built along the state-owned St. Lawrence and Atlantic Rail corridor. Last year, the state authorized converting the 26-mile stretch from Portland to Auburn into the multiuse interim trail.

Moxie Pond wilderness conserved

MAINE PUBLIC • September 29, 2026

A new conservation purchase will protect nearly three square miles of forest and lakefront in Somerset County from logging and development. The new Moxie Pond Wilderness Preserve, covering more than 1,800 acres, is adjacent to the Appalachian Trail corridor and connects to nearby conserved land. "There are a lot of excellent conservation attributes with this property, including several miles of brook trout habitat in cold mountain streams," said Peter Mandych, land conservation director at Northeast Wilderness Trust. The property includes a mile of undeveloped shoreline on Moxie Pond. The land will be managed as a wild space where logging and development are prohibited. But it will be open for recreation, hunting and access to existing ATV and snowmobile trails. The $3.2 million purchase was organized by the Wilderness Trust and Trust for Public Land.

Biennial Maine Food Producers Showcase returns to Portland

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 29, 2026

The biennial Maine Food Producers Showcase and Golden Fork Awards is set for Thursday, Oct. 8 in Portland. Hosted by the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs, the industry event spotlights innovation in Maine’s food economy. The showcase is aimed at buyers, distributors, retailers, chefs, foodservice professionals, investors, industry partners and community leaders interested in discovering Maine food and beverage companies.

Harvest on the Harbor returns to Portland for its 18th year

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 29, 2026

Portland’s annual festival celebrating Maine’s food and beverages, Harvest on the Harbor, returns to Portland in October at Maine Studio Works. Featured events include the Maine Lobster Chef of the Year competition on Friday, Oct. 16, and two sessions of the Maine OysterFest on Oct. 17.

Maine Animal Coalition’s 21st annual Veg Fest set for Portland

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 29, 2026

The 21st annual Veg Fest, hosted by the Maine Animal Coalition, is slated for Oct. 24, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m, at the East End Community School in Portland. The free event allows attendees to learn about vegan lifestyles through food vendors, educational exhibits and featured speakers.

In Greenville, proposed change to moose hunting causes divide

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 29, 2026

Maine is considering adding another week of moose hunting near Moosehead Lake during peak fall foliage, which has ignited a debate about how to share access to the iconic animal. People have long visited that area in search of its namesake, whether with a rifle or a camera. The local chamber of commerce used to say in promotional materials that moose outnumbered people 3-to-1. Now, the region is testing the balance between a long hunting tradition and a growing emphasis on fall tourism.

With less quantity, Portland Fish Exchange keeps focus on quality

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 29, 2026

The Portland Fish Exchange opened on Commercial Street’s waterfront in 1986 as America’s first all-display fresh seafood auction. But since 2010, the auction has been silent, conducted by computer, with most buyers placing bids remotely from Portland and around the Northeast. The sedate auction room handles a lower volume of seafood today than in the past, about 70,000 pounds a week in the summer, 50,000 a week in the colder months. The nonprofit exchange has struggled financially over the past couple of decades. The Portland Fish Exchange tends to attract smaller boats on shorter trips, so the fish are often fresher and better quality.

Kittery kelp farmers to appear on ‘Shark Tank’

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September x, 2026

The duo behind a Kittery-based skincare brand will be swimming with sharks on national television Wednesday. Cold Current Kelp co-founders Inga Potter and Krista Rosen are among the latest entrepreneurs to pitch their small business to a panel of billionaire investors, or “Sharks,” on ABC’s “Shark Tank.” Potter and Rosen have been running Cold Current Kelp as a small business since 2021, growing and harvesting their own seaweed from an 800-foot-long offshore farm in Kittery and turning it into skincare products. They sell their line of sugar kelp extract facial oils on their website and in dozens of shops across the Northeast.

Beyond Bucket Biology: Just Because It’s Legal, Doesn’t Mean It’s Not Harmful…

NATIVE FISH COALITION • September 29, 2026

Make no mistake about it; while warming water, droughts, floods, wildfires, development, pollution, and habitat degradation all threaten wild native fish, nonnative fish introductions are and likely always will be the number one threat. While bucket biology, anglers moving fish around, is a huge problem, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) moves nonnative fish around regularly and has for generations.  Although no one wants to talk about it, these legal actions have negatively impacted wild native fish in the same ways that illegal bucket biology has. Just because something is legal doesn’t mean that it is not harmful. This is especially true with regard to fish and game management, where conservation of the resource often takes a backseat to the desires of sportsmen. ~ Bob Mallard

Allowing space for nature: Rewilding to heal the earth

resilience • September 28,2026

The term, rewilding, often elicits strong emotions. Anger is provoked that farmers will be forced to waste precious cropland, letting it return to the wild, or that dangerous animals will be released into towns and cities. Elsewhere, guerrilla rewilders are secretly breeding butterflies, birds and beavers, and illegally releasing them across the countryside. Although rewilding is often thought of as keeping humans “away”, in fact, people must be integrated into much of the rewilding process, living alongside and allowing space for “wildness.”

A Look at Maine’s Caribou Speckled Roadless Area

ENVIRONMENT MAINE • September 28, 2026

Environment Maine recently organized local environmental organizations to tour the Caribou Speckled Roadless Area in the White Mountain National Forest west of Bethel to explore the ways that the attempted rollback of federal conservation rules might impact our public lands. This 6,000-acre ring of conserved forests around the high peaks of Caribou and Speckled Mountains is breathtakingly beautiful. Since 2001, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule has protected this place — along with 58 million acres of similarly pristine national forests nationwide. Now, the U.S. Forest Service is attempting to open 45 million acres of protected, roadless national forests across the country to the heavy tracks of bulldozers and industrial logging equipment.

Censored by the Bangor Daily News: When One Door Closes Another One Opens Up

NATIVE FISH COALITION • September 28, 2026

When Native Fish Coalition Executive Director Bob Mallard submitted an article to the Bangor Daily News as a guest column, he was stunned that new Outdoor Editor, and former Maine Department fo Inland Fisheries and Wildlife employee, Susan Bard, would not run it. Believing that the piece was important, Bob posted it on the NFC blog as well as NFC’s Facebook page and his personal page. After a few weeks, he submitted it as an OpEd to the 3 largest southern Maine Newspapers. They ran it in all three. V. Paul Reynolds, publisher for the Northwoods Sporting Journal, ran the piece as well. So did Kennebec Valley Trout Unlimited. The piece rejected by the Bangor Daily News has seen exponentially more traffic than it would have had they run it.