The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
Thank you for reading Maine Environmental News. Each year, we post thousands of news summaries, notices, and links related to important environmental issues from across the state (and beyond). If you find this service useful, you can help us continue to provide it by making a donation. Just click on the button below and contribute whatever you can afford. Thanks again for your generous support!
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Jym St. Pierre
Editor, Maine Environmental News
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 22, 2025
The $50 million makeover of L.L.Bean’s flagship store and campus accelerated this week with the demolition of an exterior portion of the building on Main Street in Freeport. The flagship store’s renovation is expected to provide a more accessible and immersive customer experience, including a new first-floor entrance and grand staircase and a larger indoor trout pond with multiple tiers and more viewpoints for better fish watching. The project is on track to be completed by fall 2026.
SUN JOURNAL • February 21, 2025
Community fruit orchards in the Twin Cities have a new caretaker and a promising spring ahead. Sean O’Connell, a community tree steward serving with Maine Conservation Corps, is set to lead free fruit tree care workshops and orchard maintenance days in Lewiston-Auburn schools. O’Connell plans to build an arboretum in one of the eight L-A orchards before he wraps up his term in November.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 21, 2025
A halt to clean energy tax credits being considered in the Republican-controlled Congress and by the Trump administration could boost electricity prices in Maine by 17% over the next 15 years, adding an average of $15 to a monthly bill, according to a study. Eliminating tax credits could lead to a $22 billion-a-year falloff in clean power investment in the U.S.; in Maine, the loss would be $100 million annually, according to the report. Nearly 1,500 megawatts of power generated by onshore wind, battery storage and solar energy would be lost in the next 15 years in Maine, with most disappearing by 2030. The result would be a loss of less expensive clean energy produced in Maine, exposing consumers to price volatility for fossil fuels such as natural gas and oil, whose prices are tied to global markets.
TIMES RECORD • February 21, 2025
Daniel Stevenson will become the new executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority (MRRA) on March 3, replacing Steve Levesque, who filled in after former Director Kristine Logan resigned in the wake of August's chemical spill. Before his MRRA assignment, Stevenson served as the Westbrook economic development director and the Biddeford economic development director for seven years in each position. His earlier career was spent with Maine’s Department of Economic and Community Development. “We also have a plan in place for periodic testing and monitoring of the oil-water separation systems to ensure they are properly maintained,” said Levesque. “Ultimately, our goal is to remove all PFAS/PFOS concentrate from the hangars.”
SUN JOURNAL • February 20, 2025
The third annual Pennesseewassee Lake Ice Fishing Derby is set for this weekend, with more than $5,000 in cash prizes and an additional $5,000 in raffle prizes. The derby will be Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a food truck on the ice both days. For those who have not preregistered, registration closes at 10 a.m. Saturday. Proceeds will benefit Moose Maine Kids, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting outdoor activities for children.
TIMES RECORD • February 20, 2025
The Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association is working to get locally caught fish into Maine’s school lunchrooms. The nonprofit has teamed up with school districts in Brunswick, South Portland, Rumford and Somerville to improve access to local seafood by developing student-tested menu options. MCFA launched the product in Brunswick Junior High School lunch lines this fall. On Feb. 11, it broadened the reach to serve hundreds of tots to Brunswick tots.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 20, 2025
A Hampden trash plant is scheduled to reopen in six to eight weeks, five years after it closed. The plant will start accepting small amounts of trash as it ramps up to full operation by the end of this year, said Michael Carroll, executive director of the Municipal Review Committee, which is a group of 115 cities and towns. The MRC operates the plant, Municipal Waste Solutions, which closed in 2020. The committee partnered with Innovative Resource Recovery, LLC, a subsidiary of White Oak Global Advisors, an investment firm that has the backing of billions of dollars. Hampden’s plant reopening should divert trash from Juniper Ridge Landfill.
MAINE MORNING STAR • February 20, 2025
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree is asking the Trump administration to go even further to protect National Park Service workers — seasonal and otherwise — amid the federal hiring freeze. Last week, Pingree sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum asking him to immediately resume seasonal hiring for the National Park Service to prevent financial ramifications, including the potential for a $500 million shortfall if there aren’t workers there to collect entrance fees. While Pingree said on Wednesday she is relieved to hear the Department of the Interior will reinstate the seasonal hires who were subject to the original hiring freeze announced last month, she’s now calling to immediately lift the hiring freeze across all parks and all positions.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 20, 2025
Floating communities, breakwaters and parks. New water taxi services, replanted eelgrass beds and sauna-based tourism. Reclaimed tank farms turned into ponds, marshes or parks. Covering shoreline bluffs with native plants that draw pollinators and prevent erosion. These are some of the imaginative ideas that architecture, engineering, environmental studies and urban planning students from schools like Harvard, Yale and Cornell developed as part of a design studio to help Portland and South Portland prepare for climate change. Student designs are on display in the community gallery at the Portland Public Library through March 15. The work will move to the South Portland Public Library on March 21 and, along with additional art work, to the SPACE Gallery in Portland on April 4.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 20, 2025
On Tuesday, the Maine Department of Marine Resources held its first public demonstration day, where anyone — in and out of the industry — could see how ropeless lobstering gear, still being developed, could work. And for some lobstermen, it felt like the first time the state was listening. State officials and representatives of fishing groups weren’t there to convince anyone that the equipment, meant to curb whale entanglements, worked. They knew it would be a losing battle. The traps get plunged into the water, sinking to the bottom until they’re summoned with the tap of a button. The lobstermen were skeptical, at best.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 20, 2025
Investing in clean and renewable energy is a commonsense way to help reduce harmful carbon emissions, protect our environment, and increase the resiliency of communities across the state, particularly along the coast. It is also just a smart move for Maine’s economy and workforce, with the production of clean energy and related technologies supporting thousands of jobs and spurring business growth throughout the state. Sen. Susan Collins should continue to help advance smart policies that increase investments in our state’s clean and renewable energy economy and workforce, while also protecting existing clean energy tax credits passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. ~ Jay Nutting, Vassalboro
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 20, 2025
Voters in the Washington County town of Steuben will decide on March 11 whether to ban commercial rocket launches, after bluShift Aerospace approached local officials a few years ago to see if they might be willing to have the company base some of its operations there. The company wants to build small rockets, which would use environmentally friendly fuel it has developed, to launch satellites into orbits above the earth’s north and south poles. The relatively sparsely developed coastline in Washington County, and the shoreline’s southern exposure to the sea, are well-suited for the company’s plans. But the vote in March could bar the company from either building rockets in Steuben or launching them off the town’s coastline.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 20, 2025
Maine’s outdoor recreation economy has generally happened on its own, but the state has a plan to more deliberately grow it 10 percent in as many years. The 10-year Outdoor Recreation Economy Roadmap, spearheaded by the Office of Outdoor Recreation and Maine Outdoor Brands, recognizes what others have accomplished and identifies goals and actions that will build on that base. The goal is to grow the $3.4 billion economy into a $3.7 billion one, said Jeff McCabe, deputy director of the Office of Outdoor Recreation on Wednesday.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 19, 2025
Workers at Acadia National Park were laid off last week as part of a mass firing of about 10,000 federal employees to slash government spending. The eight Acadia National Park employees laid off represent a 10% reduction of year-round staff for one of the state’s busiest tourist attractions. The terminated Acadia workers are among 1,000 National Park Service employees who were fired as President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk make dramatic cuts to the federal workforce. Acadia National Park has received nearly 4 million visitors annually since the pandemic, and last year, it brought in over $475 million in visitor spending and contributed $685 million in economic output. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she is continuing to work with Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum “on the remaining problems caused by the sweeping hiring freeze and the elimination of probationary workers.”
SENATOR ANGUS KING • February 19, 2025
U.S. Senator Angus King is introducing legislation to help improve conditions for kelp forest and marine life. The Help Our Kelp Act — which has a companion bill in the House of Representatives — would invest federal resources to address ongoing crises that kelp forest ecosystems face along the Maine coast. Kelp forest ecosystems in Maine and along the nation’s shores provide food and habitat for hundreds of fish and marine mammals. These aquatic regions stabilize Maine’s coasts allowing for responsible economic activities including fishing, shipping and innovations in the blue economy. Over the last 50 years, changes in climate, poor water quality and overfishing have damaged between 40-60 percent of America’s kelp forests.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 19, 2025
The heads of four major labor unions, including the parent union of the local that represents many Bath Iron Works employees, called on President Donald Trump on Wednesday to boost American shipbuilding and enforce tariffs and other “strong penalties” against China for its increasing dominance in that sphere. China manufactured more than 1,000 oceangoing vessels in 2023, while the United States made fewer than 10.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 19, 2025
The city of Portland has hired a consulting firm to update and refine the design adopted by the City Council in 2015 for an updated Franklin Street. WSP USA Inc., a global engineering and design firm, was selected for the project after a “competitive selection process.” Planning work is expected to take about 10 months. The project to overhaul Franklin Street, a major thoroughfare that runs through downtown Portland, has been in the works for nearly two decades and is projected to cost $26 million. The plan aims to restore the road to something closer to what it was decades ago before the area was transformed by urban renewal — a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 19, 2025
The Cabin Fever Reliever kicks off the sportsmen’s show season on Saturday, Feb. 22, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., at the Brewer Auditorium.. The event, put on by the Penobscot Fly Fishers, is for one day only. It is the first in a string of popular sportsmen’s shows that are held in Brewer, Orono, Presque Isle and Augusta.
SENTRY/LEADER • February 19, 2025
The South Portland City Council unanimously voted down a proposed ordinance on Tuesday that would have phased out the use of gas-powered leaf blowers citywide and instead will only require city departments to begin switching to electric models.
