The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 26, 2024
I’ve been on quite a few outdoor adventures recently. Instead of rating them with numbers or stars, I’ve decided to award them superlatives, like from a high school yearbook.
• Biggest drama queen or king: Doubletop Mountain
• Friendliest: Trout Mountain
• Most likely to become famous: Debsconeag Ice Caves
• Most upbeat attitude: Umbagog Lake
• Best dressed: Tunk Mountain
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 26, 2024
On behalf of Sierra Club Maine, I am writing in support of our Sen. Angus King. Once-Gov. King, now-Sen. King has been a long-time environmental leader and we are proud to endorse him once again for reelection this year. By helping homeowners transition to renewable energy sources, the senator is paving the way for a more sustainable and resilient energy future. Further, Sen. King’s work as chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks is another example of his unwavering commitment to protecting our natural resources. ~ Jacob Stern, Sierra Club’s Maine Chapter, Pownal
BOSTON GLOBE • October 26, 2024
In New Hampshire, environmental activists are suing over a project to log within 3,000 acres of the White Mountain National Forest just northeast of Mt. Washington and south of Gorham. The Forest Service argues that logging and letting the forest regrow in these areas will eventually absorb as much carbon dioxide as leaving the standing trees to their own devices. Jamie Sayen, a historian, author, and long-time environmentalist in New Hampshire’s North Country, said the argument that logged trees would eventually regrow to hold the same carbon as before is “utterly absurd.” “The crisis is now,” Sayen said. “Releasing more carbon into the atmosphere now, because sometime in the next 100 years it’s going to be pulled back out, is not a good strategy.”
MAINE MONITOR • October 25, 2024
After flouting state regulations in 2019 and building an unpermitted campus of 52 cabins in Columbia Falls, the company behind the scrapped Flagpole of Freedom project is paying its $250,000 fine and cleared the first hurdle for its overdue permit. That determination doesn’t free Worcester from the risk of having to raze the cabins and revegetate the land, however.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 25, 2024
The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and its Certification Services formally recognized an employee labor union Friday. Employees with the association and the certification service joined the Maine Service Employees Association, a statewide labor union that represents more than 13,000 employees and retirees of more than 20 businesses. Sarah Alexander, executive director of the association, praised the union as a means of emphasizing worker voices.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 25, 2024
Teenagers from seven high schools all across Maine spent last weekend camping, hiking, clearing trails and just hanging out – outside. The weekend was arranged by Teens to Trails, an organization that works statewide to connect Maine’s middle and high school students to the outdoors. We’ve been at this since 2006, yet the need grows every year. Teenagers are losing their connection to nature, at a rapid pace. In a world consumed by screens and schedules, they’re spending less time outdoors. The $30 million Maine Trails Bond can change that. It will provide much-needed funds to design, build and maintain trails of all kinds, across the state. ~ Alicia Heyburn, Teens for Trails
MAINE PUBLIC • October 24, 2024
No level of exposure to lead is considered safe. To reflect that, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued new rules on lead dust. The new rules said that any amount of lead in dust on floors or window sills is considered hazardous. The rules also lower the amount of lead allowed in dust on floors, window sills and troughs after lead abatement to the lowest detectable levels. A spokesperson for the Maine CDC said the agency welcomes the new rules, and expects they will help to curb lead exposure for Maine children.
MAINE PUBLIC • October 24, 2024
A Maine farmer whose land is contaminated with PFAS chemicals is urging a State advisory committee to prioritize medical testing for affected citizens. Adam Nordell and his wife owned Songbird Farm in Unity, found to be contaminated with "forever chemicals." At a public hearing before the PFAS Advisory Committee Thursday Nordell asked the state to move more quickly on offering free blood serum testing and creating a medical care program for those sickened by PFAS related illnesses."The medical care program should include treatment for PFAS linked illnesses as well as coverage of treatment to reduce the burden on the exposed community. I would ask that you not leave the physical health of our children, our farmer friends and our neighbors to receive attention and resources as a last in line priority," Nordell said.
MOTHER JONES • October 24, 2024
The fish farming sector is often touted as a sustainable way to rapidly scale up the production of crucial fish protein sources without pulling them directly from wild habitats. But there’s a catch. Some of the main ingredients that farmers feed their fish are, ironically, wild-caught fish. And a new study suggests that the aquaculture industry uses far more wild fish than previously estimated, which a group of scientists and conservationists say is fueling environmental degradation. However, the global demand for fish is expected to skyrocket in the coming decades.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 24, 2024
Most Maine farms affected by fertilizer sludge containing forever chemicals remain in production, members of the state fund charged with aiding them said on Thursday. Farmers can use fields for different crops that do not take up the contaminants as readily or plant less resilient crops in fields not treated with forever chemicals, they said. Those chemicals were contained in sludge that was spread commonly as fertilizer in the 1990s and 2000s. PFAS, which does not readily break down in the environment, has been linked to health problems such as liver damage, thyroid disease, decreased fertility, high cholesterol, obesity, hormone suppression and cancer when ingested.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 24, 2024
Mainers will be voting to decide whether the state will borrow 30 million dollars “… to invest in the design, development and maintenance for non motorized, motorized and multi-use trails statewide. The language of both the bill title and the bond question are misleading. The bond thus in reality provides for only 25 percent of the funds to be dedicated for non-motorized and active transportation and as much as 75 percent of the funds for motorized trails. At a time when we need to be moving away from further air and noise pollution, reducing our fossil fuel consumption and getting more exercise, we should not be investing such large amounts of borrowed money on recreational infrastructure that promotes the opposite. ~ Connie Potvin, Hampden
LINCOLN COUNTY NEWS • October 25, 2024
Surrounded by dozens of friends and conservation-minded confidantes, Bambi Jones and David “Tracy” Moskovitz, of Whitefield’s Hidden Valley Farm, were awarded the New England Leopold Conservation Award on Saturday, Oct. 19. Jones and Moskovitz are the first Mainers to win the prize and are among over 200 farmers across the country to receive a Leopold Conservation Award since its establishment in 2003. The pair said they were grateful to be recognized for their work, but surprised to learn they were the first from Maine to receive the award.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 24, 2024
The state issued a do-not-eat wildlife advisory Thursday warning people not to eat deer or turkeys from two new areas of Maine because of PFAS contamination. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday warned people not to eat deer or wild turkey harvested in portions of Unity, Unity Township, Albion and Freedom. There was already an advisory against eating wildlife harvested in Fairfield and parts of Skowhegan issued in 2021.
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO • October 24, 2024
Each year, the United Nations takes stock of whether countries are on track to cut carbon emissions and limit global warming. The grade this year: needs more improvement than ever. Global greenhouse gas emissions rose to a new record in 2023, and if countries do not change course, the world will see warming of more than 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit (3.1 degrees Celsius) by the end of the century. That would blow past the targets set in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 24, 2024
The Maine Climate Council is wrestling with how Maine can meet its ambitious long-term emission reduction goals despite slow electric vehicle adoption rates and the high cost of making climate programs accessible to its most vulnerable residents. In 1990, Maine produced 31.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. By state law, Maine must reduce that by 45% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. As of 2021, the last data available, Maine had achieved a 30% reduction from its 1990 emissions. The easiest way for Maine to do this is to ensure that 53% of new passenger cars and 17.5% of new heavy-duty vehicles sold in Maine are electric by 2030. But the Board of Environmental Protection rejected a mandate to boost electric and hybrid car sales last year after critics claimed Maine lacked the charging infrastructure to support it, prompting state lawmakers to assume jurisdiction over Maine’s tailpipe emission regulations.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 24, 2024
The Oct. 1 Press Herald article “Artificial turf questions surface at Falmouth plastics forum” misrepresented the purpose of the event. The focus was not about artificial turf. We’ve known about the harm of plastic manufacturing and disposal, and particularly our dependance on single-use plastics, for decades now. Even though we have this knowledge base (scientifically and anecdotally) we have seen the proliferation of plastics on our supermarkets’ shelves and in our homes, etc., and it’s very concerning. The Press Herald’s focus on turf misrepresented why most of us gathered that evening. ~ Linda Stimpson, Portland
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 24, 2024
The following are a few hiking trails that are especially beautiful during the fall:
• Dodge Point Public Reserved Land in Newcastle
• Blue Hill Mountain in Blue Hill
• Eagle Bluff in Clifton
• Mount Blue in Weld
• Precipice Trail in Acadia National Park
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 24, 2024
I was asked to review a recently published guidebook, Kristen Hine’s “Birds of Florida.” The guide works, for a couple of easily overlooked reasons. Foremost, it emphasizes habitat. The best way to find birds is to know where to look. Secondly, the book is concise. It covers the basics of identifying each bird, while resisting the temptation to over-describe it. It’s the kind of guide that a Mainer might find useful during a Florida vacation this winter. ~ Bob Duchesne
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 23, 2024
Trombley Industries, a Limestone-based contractor, has paid $12,000 to the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge for causing silt contamination within the refuge’s wetlands. The Maine DEP received a complaint from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Sept. 2022 about high silt levels in Greenlaw Brook, which runs for six miles on land abutting the refuge and the Mi’kmaq Nation land trust. Trombley uses a ditch system for its gravel washing operations. A portion of that ditching system had eroded. The $12,000 will pay for signage, gates and other infrastructure for a trail that volunteers from the Friends group are constructing with the USFWS and Mi’kmaq Nation. The trail will connect Greenlaw Brook with East Loring and include signage that explains Mi’kmaq culture and history and environmental clean-up efforts at the former Loring base.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 23, 2024
Maine will receive $40.5 million in federal funds for two projects aimed at responding to the effects of climate change on wildlife habitat and agricultural lands. Nearly $25 million will support a project led by the Nature Conservancy to upgrade road-stream crossings and preserve wildlife habitats in order to allow Atlantic salmon, brook trout, turtles and other wildlife to migrate more easily. Another $15.5 million will support the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine’s effort to protect the state’s wild blueberry industry from threats related to climate change.
