The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 14, 2025
Just after midnight on Thursday, the moon began its descent into the dark realms of the earth’s shadow, or umbra, transforming into a flaming, coppery red orb for all viewers in Maine. The moon was visible on Thursday evening and reached peak illumination by 2:55 a.m. on Friday morning. For the first time in three years, the total lunar eclipse — also known as the blood moon — was visible to all of North America.
MAINE MONITOR • March 14, 2025
This month’s edition of “The Maine Monitor Radio Hour” features a panel discussion about the future of Maine’s dams, including the dams on Silver Lake, Alamoosook Lake, and Toddy Pond. Maine Monitor environmental reporter Emmett Gartner led the February 4 discussion with James Woidt (a lead author of the dams chapter of 2024 Report Card on Maine’s Infrastructure by the American Society of Civil Engineers), Susan Lessard (Bucksport town manager and Chair of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection) and Gina Bushong (a member of the Orland board of selectmen). With a number of federal licenses set to expire, and with smaller, state-regulated dams requiring immediate action to stay safe, Maine has a unique opportunity to influence the state’s network of dams.
SPECTRUM NEWS • March 14, 2025
Lawmakers are considering a new bill to increase opportunities for kids in grades 4-8 to tap into the beauty and learning opportunities of the Maine outdoors. Advocates of the program say only 25% of Maine students get these types of experiences now. They are backing a bill to set up a statewide program to ensure three-day, two-night learning adventures for all. “Students in Maine are incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by such vast natural landscapes, however many do not get the chance to really take advantage of our environment,” Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford) told members of the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee on Thursday. His bill, LD 895, is similar to one that passed last session with broad bipartisan support. But it never got funded, so he brought back a new bill that sets up a framework for the program without needing any funding.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 14, 2025
Artists have long visited the rocky shores of Monhegan 10 miles off the coast of Maine. Over time, they have created a sort of ecological record of their subject. The show, titled “Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island,” uses their work to tell a story about the way the landscape has changed and how it has stayed the same. An exhibit that encompasses the ecological record of Monhegan Island is on view now at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and will travel this summer to the Monhegan Museum of Art and History.
SUN JOURNAL • March 13, 2025
About 20 people gathered Tuesday at the Town Office to start the process of developing an outdoor master recreation and facilities plan for Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls. The towns partnered with Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, a regional planning agency, in Auburn. AVCOG partnered with consulting firm Fourth Economy based in Philadelphia, which helped Maine prepare a 10-year Outdoor Recreation Economy Roadmap. The towns and AVCOG joined together in obtaining a grant from U.S. Department of Environmental Protection Agency’s Recreation Economy for Rural Communities planning assistance program.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 13, 2025
Efficiency Maine Trust, the quasi-state agency that administers energy efficiency programs and disburses heat pump incentives, has lost access to about $15 million in federal funding that would have doubled its capacity to draw private capital for energy efficiency and clean energy programs. It’s one of more than two dozen nonprofit groups and agencies in the U.S. that the Trump administration has targeted by freezing and later canceling their assets.
MAINE PUBLIC • March 13, 2025
Maine’s air pollution will likely get worse if the Trump administration enacts a massive rollback of environmental regulations, according to public health and conservation advocates. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin plans more than 30 actions to reconsider rules including those that limit pollution from power plants, automobiles and the oil and gas industry. The agenda further targets protections aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions driving up global temperatures.
MAINE PUBLIC • March 13, 2025
A group of aquaculture businesses and environmental organizations is launching a new campaign to better inform the public about Maine's farmed seafood industry. The Maine Farmed Seafood Coalition launched Thursday at Bangs Island Mussels in Portland. Paul Dobbins said the international group World Wildlife Fund joined the coalition because Maine has proven to be a leader in raising and regulating the farmed seafood industry. The coalition argues that locally farmed seafood is a more environmentally friendly option than the imported alternative, and that Maine's wide array of aquaculture businesses are primed to take on the challenges facing the state's traditional fisheries.
TIMES RECORD • March 13, 2025
Scientists are working to restore what has been lost — roughly half of the native eelgrass cover. Bowdoin College senior Lucy Dutton helped scatter 40,000 seeds near Cousins and Little John Islands, just off the coast of Yarmouth. She has been busy working in the lab this winter, reserving some seeds to test germination rates. Her studies seek to reveal how aquatic plants respond to stress, such as temperature and salinity changes, in Petri dishes — knowledge that is vital for guiding future restoration along the East Coast.
TIMES RECORD • March 13, 2025
The Merrymeeting Bay Chapter of Trout Unlimited will host Lauren Pickford, TU Maine project manager, to discuss TU’s priority waters as well as ongoing and future projects around the state at its monthly meeting Tuesday, March 18, 7 pm, free, at Sea Dog Brewing in Topsham. Pickford holds degrees from the University of Maine and Unity College and is passionate about connecting people to the outdoors. She has led efforts to improve stream connectivity, water quality and aquatic habitats. She has also managed volunteer programs, mentored youth conservation crews and worked on policy advocacy to protect Maine’s waters.
TIMES RECORD • March 13, 2025
The Topsham Select Board has voted to join the effort to restore the Androscoggin River to health and prosperity after decades of blockage and neglect. The unanimous vote to support improvement in migratory fish passage at the Brunswick-Topsham dam comes a month after Brunswick officials signaled support for a new fish ladder. The Topsham resolution, sponsored by Free the Andro Coalition, comes as the dam comes under review for relicensing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 13, 2025
A Republican who firmly opposes Maine’s efforts to develop offshore wind power is finding political allies among those who back it. Their common ground: keep Sears Island out of it. About a dozen people who support efforts to launch an offshore wind industry testified Wednesday in favor of two bills against developing a wind port on Sears Island, urging lawmakers on the Environment and Natural Resources Committee to consider building a terminal to assemble and store wind turbines at Mack Point instead, saying that the nearby location is already an industrial site being used by an energy and port services company.
TIMES RECORD • March 13, 2025
Climatologists anticipate more frequent and intense storms in a warming world. That leaves Maine’s coastlines vulnerable to erosion and floods, “a double threat,” according to Haylee Parsons, manager of Georgetown’s Reid Sate Park. In response, parks have shifted from recovery to proactive resilience, weighing options from detachable boardwalks to teaming up with nonprofits. The park has emulated conservation methods seen at Popham Beach, which have yielded results. Lining discarded Christmas trees on the beach in Phippsburg helped restore nearly 120 feet of erosion and protect the dunes. The next big project is rehabilitating the old concessions stand into a learning center. Nonprofit volunteers will help guide future programs. To get involved with the Friends of Reid State Park, email contact@friendsofreid.org.
CENTRAL MAINE • March 13, 2025
Maine people were promised a 15% discount when they paid for community solar generation. Now, customers are complaining that the 15% savings isn’t happening. While I wait for the adjustment, I have seen my savings in propane expenditures offset the increases in my electric bills, and I am getting better quality heat. ~ Peter Konieczko, Scarborough
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 12, 2025
A 140-mile electric transmission line that would bring wind power from northern Maine to the New England grid has been stalled for years, but it was back before the Legislature on Tuesday as lawmakers again considered authorizing the project. Sen. Mark Lawrence, co-chair of the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, presented a resolutionthat would approve construction and operation of the line and related facilities — even though, as critics pointed out, its exact route, cost and developer are still unknown. That information would still need to be vetted and authorized by state regulators before construction could begin.
MAINE PUBLIC • March 12, 2025
Lawmakers heard more than five hours of testimony Wednesday from both sides of a debate over preserving Sears Island in the Town of Searsport. A pair of bills from state representative Reagan Paul would extend a conservation easement across the island and restore sand dune protections in a 330-acre parcel set aside for development. The Winterport Republican said it's time to end decades of controversial port proposals for the island in the town of Searsport. The latest plan is a floating offshore wind port by the Maine Department of Transportation that has so far failed to attract federal funding. Local conservationists support the proposal and said the highest and best use of the island is as a wild area. But opponents including state agencies, environmental groups and labor unions, argue it would be a mistake to give up the commercial parcel on Sears Island.
NEW REPUBLIC • March 12, 2025
The FBI has told Citibank that recipients of EPA climate grants are being considered as potentially liable for fraud. That is, the Trump administration wants to criminalize work on climate science and impacts,” the @capitolhunters account wrote Wednesday on X. “An incoming administration not only cancels federal grants but declares recipients as criminals. All these grantees applied under government calls FOR ENVIRONMENTAL WORK, were reviewed and accepted. Trump wants to jail them.“
ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 12, 2025
In what he called the “most consequential day of deregulation in American history,” the head of the Environmental Protection Agency announced a series of actions Wednesday to roll back landmark environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants, climate change and electric vehicles. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said, “We are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion.” Zeldin said he and President Donald Trump support rewriting the agency’s 2009 finding that planet-warming greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.
BETHEL CITIZEN • March 12, 2025
March is crunch time for loggers hauling heavy loads in Western Maine. Many towns will be posting their roads soon, meaning certain roads will be closed to heavy logging trucks to prevent potential damage to the thawing asphalt. In the logging industry today, it’s all about volume. “Twenty or 25 years ago, a chainsaw and a skidder were enough,” says Bob Brown, of Upton, who manages the Kennebec Lumber Yard on Route 26 in Bethel. “Now, loggers need feller bunchers, de-limbers, processors, and slashers. They have to produce more to cover the cost of the equipment.” Brown worries about the future of logging and hopes more young people will enter the industry. “It’s a hard living, but it’s an honest living. Everything you make, you earn,” he says.
MAINE PUBLIC • March 12, 2025
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is ending two national programs that help food banks and schools in Maine — and around the country — purchase produce from local farmers. USDA told Maine officials and partners that it has terminated the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program. It helped Good Shepherd Food Bank buy produce from about 100 Maine farmers, which is then distributed to local food banks around the state. "That program is incredibly important to the state of Maine, both in food today — food that we source and distribute today — and in food tomorrow, which is the economic viability for those 100 farmers and for our partner agencies to experience fresh, nutritious produce," said Good Shepherd President Heather Paquette. At the same time, the food bank recently learned USDA will stop delivering about 1 million pounds of food through the Emergency Food Assistance Program to Maine.
