WCSH-TV5 • August 26, 2020
Little over a century ago the puffin population in Maine was in dire shape. The odd-looking but endearing seabird, prized for its colorful feathers used to decorate women’s hats and other clothing, had been hunted nearly to extinction in the state. In 1902 Matinicus Rock--one of the islands where puffins traditionally nested—was home, according to the Audubon Society, to just one pair of nesting puffins. The restoration of these birds to offshore islands in recent decades is one of Maine’s stirring environmental success stories.