Browntail moth populations in Maine crashed in 2024, so expect a less itchy spring

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 4, 2025

Proliferation of a fungus caused browntail moth populations to crater in 2024, which likely means that Maine residents will get relief from the forest pest this spring and summer, scientists said. The state tracks defoliation caused by the caterpillars, and saw it plummet from 46,000 acres in 2023 to 2,000 acres in 2024. UMaine is researching whether a pheromone can be used to disrupt the mating patterns of browntail moths, another way to control the population. Browntail moth populations typically go through a boom-bust cycle that lasts 10-12 years, and 2024 was considered the ninth year of the current outbreak. So in year 10, 2025, it appears likely that Maine will enter a “bust” cycle for the browntail moth.

Column: Snowy owls are coming to Maine; see them in the most ethical way

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 4, 2025

Yes, Snowy Owls are coming south! This is always exciting for birders and owl aficionados as we get an opportunity to see one of the most charismatic and endearing animals. We typically only see them following a year of high reproductive success in the Arctic, where they nest. When there is too much competition often the young birds will wander south in search of food. The fun word associated with these types of movements is called an irruption. if your presence is changing the animal’s behavior in any way, you are too close. The first sign will be the owl looking your way. If an owl turns its head to look at you or in your direction, or if you have made eye contact, then that is your sign to start backing up. Don’t flush a bird just so you can get a photo of it flying! ~ Doug Hitchcock, Maine Audubon

Opinion: Maine must remain vigilant in protecting its forests

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 4, 2025

During the last severe outbreak in the 1970s and 1980s, the spruce budworm infestation caused widespread tree mortality across Maine’s forest. It cost our economy hundreds of millions of dollars and the ecological effects were significant. This summer, landowners and state officials noted increased spruce-fir defoliation in northern Maine. Indicators predict elevated budworm populations in approximately 250,000 acres. In response, landowners implemented a coordinated plan. We hope federal and state funding will be approved so we can tackle spruce budworm head-on. The early intervention program will cost $15 million in 2025 alone. But if left untreated, the current infestation could disrupt Maine’s forest economy to the tune of $794 million annually. ~ Alex Ingraham, Pingree Associates, which manages 820,000 acres of forestland in Maine

A conversation with Samantha Horn, director of Maine’s new Office of Community Affairs

MAINE MONITOR • January 3, 2025

I came to Maine in 1999 and I started working in natural resource agencies, including Inland Fisheries and Wildlife as a biologist and Department of Marine Resources as the aquaculture policy coordinator, and I really got a strong sense of how Maine communities were engaging in discussions around how to make decisions about how we use our land, how we use our water. I then got the opportunity to join the Land Use Planning Commission where I could think deeply about how we use our land, how people who live in the local area can have a strong voice. And then from there, I went to The Nature Conservancy, then did a little bit of consulting along the same lines. All of my jobs have been about: How can communities have agency and good discussions about how we use land? Now I’ve landed in this role. It’s housing, it’s land use, it’s how we conserve lands. It’s a coastal program. It’s lots of threads, but it’s all about how our communities can be healthy.

Injured hiker rescued in Acadia National Park on New Year’s Eve

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 3, 2025

A woman was rescued on New Year’s Eve after she fell on a mountain in Acadia National Park. The 68-year-old was hiking with her husband on Gorham Mountain about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday when she slipped from a standing position and hurt her lower leg, according to John Kelly, a management assistant in the Acadia superintendent’s office. Five park service employees and 11 volunteers from MDI Search and Rescue carried the woman about an eighth of a mile to the Gorham Mountain parking lot on the Park Loop Road. Her husband drove her from the scene.

Letter: How Maine can act on climate change

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 3, 2025

I attend King Middle School in Portland. In social studies class, we have been learning about climate change and energy sources. Wind energy is a healthy energy source for Maine to mitigate climate change. By having blades rotate as the wind blows, a turbine is spun so that power can be generated. The average wind turbine installed in the United States today gives the turbine up to 20 years of productive use. Hydropower is an energy source able to develop on a mass scale. Maine should focus on solar power. ~ Hamsa Sadak, Portland

Maine reported record-high number of tickborne disease cases last year

MAINE PUBLIC • January 3, 2025

Maine reported a record number of tickborne disease cases in 2024, breaking another record high set the year before. There were 3,218 reported cases of Lyme disease last year in the state, nearly 300 more than in 2023, according to data from the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases of other tick-borne diseases, including Babesiosis and Anaplasmosis, also increased and broke state records. Data from the Maine CDC show that the rate of tickborne diseases was especially high among Mainers in the midcoast.

Irving acquires Aroostook sawmill

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 3, 2025

Irving Forest Products has acquired an Aroostook sawmill from another Canadian company. Irving will take over the Masardis sawmill in a sale that closes Monday, the company announced Thursday. The sale price wasn’t disclosed. The Masardis mill, owned by Groupe Lebel of Quebec, employs 80 workers and has an annual capacity of 115 million board feet. With this acquisition, Irving now owns 10 sawmills across Maine and New York that have a combined annual capacity of 1.3 billion board feet. Irving is Maine’s largest landowner, with 1.3 million acres of timberland. Groupe Lebel acquired the Masardis sawmill, Aroostook’s largest, in 2018 from Quebec-based Maibec, which had bought the former J. Paul Levesque sawmill in 2015.

Solar power is cutting daytime electricity demand on New England’s grid

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 3, 2025

Power generated by rooftop solar panels in Maine is small relative to other New England states but nearly doubled in the last year. Rooftop solar is known as “behind the meter” because it does not take power from the regional grid. That is why, on days when rooftop solar use is high, it creates a dip in daytime energy demand on the grid instead of the typical lunchtime spike. The trend is unlikely to affect retail electricity prices on a customer’s power bill, ISO said. But that could change if time-of-use rates become more popular.

Opinion: Jimmy Carter left historic environmental legacy

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 3, 2025

President Jimmy Carter was a great humanitarian, statesman and environmentalist who was ahead of his time. As a Navy submarine officer, he saw the clear and present danger of being reliant on fossil fuels, and as a farmer understood how important it was not to disrupt the climate with excess carbon. Although he wasn’t able to see his entire vision for a sustainable planet take place, he did make milestones federally that we take for granted today. He started America down the right path. Without his actions the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which allocates close to $370 billion toward clean energy initiatives and tax breaks never could have happened. Nor would have Maine become the climate leader it is today. ~ Ramona Cornell du Houx, Solon

Central Maine Power aims to finish controversial western Maine power corridor in 2025

MAINE PUBLIC • January 3, 2025

After years of political and legal setbacks, a new power corridor through western Maine is finally nearing completion. The New England Clean Energy Connect was proposed back in 2017 as a way to deliver electricity from Canada to the U.S. Despite years of pushback the company behind the project — Connecticut-based Avangrid — says the 145-mile transmission line and power station upgrades will be operational by the end of this year. In a filing with Maine regulators, the company said a 54-mile corridor from the Canadian border to The Forks is fully cleared. More than 900 pole bases have been installed and over 750 poles erected, according to Avangrid.

Column: These are the owls that come to Maine and their hangouts

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 3, 2025

Four owl species nest in Maine — great horned owl, barred owl, northern saw-whet owl and eastern screech-owl. Two species possibly nest here — short-eared owl and long-eared owl — but these two are rarely encountered in summer. Four species occasionally visit from the north in winter months — snowy owl, great gray owl, northern hawk-owl and (rarely) boreal owl.

Maine man lands 8-pound brown trout

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 3, 2025

Caleb Merrill of Greenwood caught an 8-pound 27-inch brown trout on opening day Wednesday while ice fishing at Bryant Pond in Oxford County. He caught it in about 5 feet of water on small shiners. “It was the biggest fish I’ve ever seen come through the ice,” Merrill said on Thursday.

Letter: Use solar, wind and nuclear power to make Maine carbon neutral

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 2, 2025

In class at King Middle School we have been reading, learning, researching and debating about energy sources and climate change. I strongly believe Maine should use solar, wind and nuclear energy to become carbon neutral by 2040. Maine will strive to become carbon neutral by 2040 with wind, solar, and nuclear energy. ~ Nar’kaysia Foster, Portland

Maine broke tick-borne disease record in 2024

MAINE PUBLIC • January 2, 2025

Maine saw a record-breaking number of tick-borne disease cases in 2024 for a second year in a row. Between January and December, 3,218 cases of Lyme disease were reported, according to final figures the state released Thursday. Last year, 2,943 cases of that disease broke the previous record. Higher numbers of Lyme and other diseases carried by ticks are seen alongside increasing habitat ranges for ticks in recent years that’s making it more difficult to work or play outside as warmer, wetter winters in Maine are allowing the ticks to stay more active and reproduce longer.

Brunswick starts five-year countdown to reduce emissions

TIMES RECORD • December 2, 2024

As Brunswick enters a new year, it’s starting a five-year countdown to the first milestone in the Climate Action Plan adopted last month. Brunswick’s plan, which town councilors passed in December, aims to reduce emissions 65% by 2030. The nearly 300-page document identifies seven community sectors — municipal, housing, transportation, energy, natural resources, community health and waste — as areas for improvement.

Cruise ships plan to bring 55K visitors to Eastport this year

QUODDY TIDES • January , 22025

More and larger cruise ships, with passenger numbers that are more than three times the city’s population, are scheduled to arrive in Eastport this year. While the visits are spread out more than during this past year, with a few in July and August, some residents and business owners are now wondering whether the small island city is hosting too many ships with too many passengers.

Maine's high court to decide if city park rangers must be law enforcement officers

MAINE PUBLIC • January 2, 2025

Maine's highest court is taking up a case that could decide whether municipal park rangers must be trained as law enforcement officers. The case stems from an incident when a Portland park ranger issued a summons to Marc Lesperance for walking through Baxter Woods with a dog that was off-leash. Lesperance is now appealing a District Court judgment against him. He is arguing that the park ranger had no authority to issue the summons or enforce a statute because the ranger was not a trained law enforcement officer. A provision in state law says that "constables shall be appointed in the same manner and with the same effect as special police officers." The Law Court has invited parties to file amicus briefs addressing whether a municipal constable must complete the basic training program offered by the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. The court is also asking for arguments on whether municipalities can appoint a person to enforce a local ordinance if that person is not a "constable" under Maine law.

Smiling Hill Farm closes cross country trails in Westbrook over lack of snow

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 2, 2025

Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook will no longer offer cross country skiing because of a lack of snow during winter months. The popular farm announced the change in a Facebook post on New Years Day and said it is selling its ski equipment. It will offer snowshoeing and rentals when snow conditions permit.

Maine officials warn of thin ice after Franklin County rescue

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 2, 2025

The Maine Warden Service is warning people to check for thin ice after a man was rescued at a pond in Industry on New Years Day. A game warden and an ice fisherman averted tragedy when they teamed up to pull David Beaudoin, a 68-year-old Industry man, out of Clearwater Pond on Wednesday.