They’ve farmed in Maine since the 1970s. It took years to find someone to continue their legacy.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 15, 2024

Karen and Paul Volckhausen have spent more than half their lives on the Happytown Road in Orland. There, the couple built a home, grew vegetables and flowers, tapped maple trees and raised chickens, turkeys, sheep and pigs. They started as homesteaders during Maine’s 1970s back-to-the-land movement and grew their efforts into a commercial farm that’s now a local fixture. At the end of the year, Karen, 83, and Paul, 73, are retiring. But they’ll still live there, and the farm will keep growing — an employee, 32-year-old Angelica Harwood, is taking it over.

Column: Mt. Blue State Park by Snowshoe

DAILY BULLDOG • December 14, 2024

When the first storm of the season drops a good 10 inches of snow across the foothills of Western Maine, I head for the snowshoe trails of Mt. Blue State Park in Weld. I usually get out my snowshoeing gear by mid-November, to have it at the ready when snow arrives. My email inbox brings a notice from the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands that the Park trails are open for use. I am out the door – snowshoes, trekking poles with snow baskets, a daypack with hot soup, plenty of water, a back-up layer of clothing, and other essentials. ~ Doug Dunlap

Bucksport salmon farm still on ice

MAINE MONITOR • December 14, 2024

When Whole Oceans announced plans to build a land-based Atlantic salmon farm on the site of a former paper mill in Bucksport in 2018, the town embraced the project. This diverged from the reception of a similar proposal in nearby Belfast, which was announced just a month earlier. Both projects were pitched as better for the environment than fish farms that use net pens in the ocean, which abound in Washington County but have been banned in all states on the West Coast due to their environmental impacts. Yet six years later there is nothing to see at the Bucksport site, and its local permits have expired. A land-based fish farm proposed for Jonesport has been hung up by legal challenges, as has the Nordic Aquaculture proposal in Belfast. 

Column: Backpacking gear isn’t cheap. Here’s how to take care of it.

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 14, 2024

Now that winter is here, it's important to store your gear properly. Check buckles and straps, and repair or replace tears and other damage. Check your tent walls, mesh and rainfly for tears and holes; repair as needed with tape or mesh patches. Wash your sleeping bag in a front-loading machine on the gentle cycle using a down cleaner product. Dry the bag on low and throw in three or four tennis balls to break up the down clumps. Your air mattress should be gently wiped down with a damp sponge or cloth and a dab of liquid dish soap. Let it dry and then stow loosely rolled up. Gently scrub your boots using warm water and dish soap. Air dry of the sun. Remove the insoles, rinse and dry. Treat boots with a waterproofing wax for leather. Clean and dry your cook kit. Disinfect your hydration bladder and drinking tube. Sort through the rest of your gear and organize it all. ~ Carey Kish

Column: Trapping animals in the wild takes time and dedication

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 14, 2024

Trapping is a fascinating part of the conservation tools that we have in Maine. The benefits of trapping are also often misunderstood. It has played a significant role in our country’s history. The fur industry led to the creation of some early economies, and the creation of some of the most well-known trading hubs in all the colonies. Hunters and trappers have been at the forefront of conservation efforts from the start. ~ Erin Merrill

Letter: Climate leadership is alive and well in Maine

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 14, 2024

This week marks the ninth anniversary of the Paris Agreement – a global commitment to fight climate change. The climate champions within the America Is All In coalition remain “all in” on our commitment to combat climate change regardless of who is in office. Now more than ever, local leaders have the tools and resources they need for climate action through the investment of the Inflation Reduction Act. And we want to keep it that way. Maine signatories of the America Is All In pledge stand united in our commitment to the Paris Agreement and to a socially just and livable future. ~ Peyton Siler Jones, South Portland

Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative to use $14.6 million to improve reliability

MAINE PUBLIC • December 13, 2024

The USDA has awarded a loan of more than $14 million to Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative to build or improve more than 70 miles of power lines. The cooperative said it will use the loan to connect 600 consumers. The funds will also go toward a four year plan to improve the reliability of the electric system that serves roughly 13,000 customers along Maine's eastern border with Canada.

Former head of Brunswick Landing authority returns as interim director

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 13, 2024

Steve Levesque, who led the Brunswick Landing redevelopment group from its inception in 2006 until 2021, is helping the organization hire a permanent executive director to replace Kristine Logan, who resigned in October following a toxic foam spill at the Brunswick Executive Airport. The authority had come under fire from community members and officials after the airport it oversees released 50,000 gallons of water mixed with 1,450 gallons of PFAS-laden firefighting foam into the surrounding environment in August. Initially, the authority hired Levesque as a part-time consultant in October after Logan’s resignation. However, board members realized Levesque was serving more as an executive director and granted him that role in the interim last week.

Some in fishing industry see Trump as a friend, but tariffs could make for pricier fish

ASSOCIATED PRESS • December 13, 2024

The incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is likely to bring big changes for one of the oldest sectors of the U.S. economy – seafood – and some in the industry believe the returning president will be more responsive to its needs. Economic analysts paint a more complicated picture, as they fear Trump’s pending trade hostilities with major trading partners Canada and China could make an already pricy kind of protein more expensive to consumers. Conservationists also fear Trump’s emphasis on government deregulation could jeopardize fish stocks that are already in peril.

130 acres on Lake Wesserunsett in Madison eyed for conservation

MORNING SENTINEL • December 13, 2024

An area long used for recreation and crucial for water quality in Lake Wesserunsett could soon be conserved through a partnership between two local groups. Somerset Woods Trustees, a land trust that owns several preserves in Somerset County, is under contract to buy 130 acres in the Black Point area of the East Madison lake. The land trust is working with the Lake Wesserunsett Association to raise $300,000, for the purchase. The two groups are aiming to raise $350,000 to cover other costs like surveys and appraisals and to start a stewardship fund for future care of the property.

Arsenic detected at Pittston’s RiverWalk poses low risk, officials say

KENNEBEC JOURNAL • December 13, 2024

Arsenic was found in the soil and groundwater at Pittston’s RiverWalk, including in high levels in one area, but there is no reason to worry, officials say. “(The DEP) did find arsenic in the southwest area of the RiverWalk. It could be naturally occurring, but the level isn’t worth worrying about,” said Jean Ambrose, a former member of the Pittston Select Board. As the co-chair of the town’s RiverWalk Committee, Ambrose shared the report’s results with elected officials Dec. 4.

Renewable energy has a growing positive impact on Maine’s economy and environment

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 13, 2024

Recent concerns about rising utility bills overlook and misconstrue the proven benefits solar policies deliver to Maine’s economy and environment. Multiple independent studies of Maine’s solar net metering policy have found that the benefits of solar to ratepayers significantly outweigh the costs, while increasing the state’s energy independence and resilience. Maine’s renewable energy industry contributed more than $2.3 billion of Maine’s total gross state product in 2022. With more than 15,000 workers statewide, our clean energy industry is a significant job creator, and we have the fastest-growing clean energy economy. ~ Phil Coupe, co-founder, ReVision Energy

Opinion: Maine Legislature needs to strengthen mining regulations

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 13, 2024

Callahan in Brooksville and Kerramerican in Blue Hill are industrial scale metallic mineral mines operated for a few years and closed half a century ago. Hundreds of smaller failed metal mines in Maine closed in the 19th century. Maine’s Legislature continues to repeatedly respond with ineffective mining regulations. The state is responsible for 10%of the partial remediation costs at the Callahan EPA Superfund site, and is paying those taxpayer-funded costs at the rate of $740,000 per year. The Kerramerican tailings pond leachate is contaminating Carlton Stream to a level of toxic heavy metals 30 times greater than the maximum allowable. Who, other than the public, will pay to remediate this site? Maine’s legislature has not embraced the need for a harm-prevention regulatory structure and has instead relied on the ever-changing, industry-driven, ineffective harm-punishment regulatory structure. Maine’s DEP has no scientific experts in mining on staff and limited funds to hire any as consultants. ~ Ralph Chapman, applied physics research scientist, educator and former state legislator, Bucksport

Column: 10 common bird-feeding mistakes to avoid

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 13, 2024

Here it comes again: my top 10 bird-feeding mistakes, slightly updated.
10. Placing feeders too far from bushes and trees
9. Placing feeders an improper distance from windows
8. Placing feeders near shrubs and dense plantings where cats can lurk
7. Cleaning feeders too infrequently
6. Storing seed improperly
5. Offering too little food variety
4. Offering too much food variety
3. Making life too easy for ants and bees
2. Making life too easy for bears
1. Making life too easy for squirrels

A midcoast town is still trying to clean up its giant toxic carpet pile

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 13, 2024

The town of Warren has applied again for federal funding to clean up a large pile of toxic carpet waste on the side of Route 90, after it was denied an earlier request for $2 million to pay for the work. This time, the town is seeking double that amount. The 300,000 cubic yards of carpet have littered a local property since the late 1990s, when Chester Randall Dunican and his wife, Kathleen, began dumping the material there after claiming it could serve as berms for a proposed rifle range. Much of the highly flammable carpet remains there, steadily leaking PFAS into the topsoil. It would be enough material to fill 90 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Opinion: Replace fossil fuel subsidies with investments in clean energy

TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY • December 13, 2024

Why in the world should the public provide giant subsidies to the giant corporations that are rushing us to climate catastrophe? Showered with tens of millions of dollars in oil and gas campaign contributions, President-elect Donald Trump is poised to pay back the favor likely thousands of times over — at public expense. Trump and his pro-fossil fuel corporate cronies seem ready to put their thumb on the scale for Big Oil, bolstering their already robust subsidies — billions of dollars that perpetuate a system of environmental degradation and economic injustice. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick for the Interior Department, which leases onshore land and offshore water for oil and gas production, has spent years promoting a scheme allowing his state’s fossil fuel industry to keep drilling. For the sake of our economy, our environment, and future generations, it’s time to leave fossil fuel subsidies in the past. ~ Robert Weissman, Public Citizen

Questions linger around forever chemicals at Brunswick airport’s Hangar 6

TIMES RECORD • December 12, 2024

Hangar 6 became a big point of discussion in town meetings and other public events after Hangar 4 released 1,450 gallons of firefighting foam concentrate mixed with 50,000 gallons of water this summer. As Brunswick works to clear up the fallout from an August toxic firefighting foam spill at the airport’s Hangar 4, many anxieties persist around another hangar on the property that some argue still poses the potential for another devastating spill. Friends of Merrymeeting Bay has been testing water sources around the base and elsewhere in town for PFAS for a couple years, according to organizer Ed Friedman and the Brunswick Sewer District General Manager Rob Pontau, who uses this data for basic insight of PFAS in the system.

Struggling to adapt

MAINE MORNING STAR • December 12, 2024

More than 90 percent of Maine’s fire departments are staffed mostly or entirely by volunteers, and these departments face added challenges reducing PFAS exposure to firefighters. Many departments cannot follow the ‘best practice’ guidance to keep turnout gear and other known sources of PFAS like stored firefighting foam out of commonly used areas. Research demonstrates the advisability of storing gear in separate locker rooms, to minimize inhalation of PFAS-laden dust, but fewer than a quarter of Maine’s departments have that option. Acquiring even a single set of fluorine-free gear for all of the state’s roughly 7,200 firefighters could cost more than $30 million, not counting disposal costs for the old gear.

Letter: Well-told story recalls different time

CENTRAL MAINE • December 12, 2024

Bravo for the outstanding and thoughtful column by Ron Joseph (“When my high school ate moose meat,” Dec. 5). Joseph tells the story of hunting season back in 1965 at high school in Oakland. Back then, guns were used prolifically, including by students, to hunt. What a long, strange trip it’s been since young boys toted firearms to school freely to today’s gun massacres, school shootings and fear and loathing among students, their parents and teachers. To me, this column was one of the most beautiful and thoughtful pieces of writing I have seen in 55 years of reading the Kennebec Journal. ~ John Hale, North Monmouth 

Acadia National Park Is a Lab for Climate Change Mitigation Efforts

SIERRA • December 11, 2024

Mount Desert Island is a rare place on the Atlantic coast where mountains rise directly above the ocean. Its principal town, Bar Harbor, was originally named Eden. It’s no wonder that Mount Desert Island hosts the Northeast’s sole national park: Acadia. In January 2024, a pair of nor’easters detonated Acadia’s aura of untouchable remoteness when they battered the island with hurricane-force winds. The combination of Acadia’s vulnerability to the rising sea and its rank among the most visited national parks in the country have made it a laboratory for a policy that the National Park Service adopted in 2021 to confront the climate crisis on federally managed lands nationwide. The Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework is named for the three broad strategies that resource managers are being encouraged to use to either rehabilitate damaged park facilities or prepare them for anticipated changes brought on by spiking temperatures, ecosystem destabilization, and coastal erosion.