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February 6, 2012
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Press releases, events, publications released, etc. from Maine environmental organizations and agencies. Submit content.
Maine Environmental News
Announcement - Sunday, February 05, 2012
Thanks for visiting Maine Environmental News, the most comprehensive online source available for links to Maine conservation and natural resource news stories and events. Since the start of 2009, I have posted more than 16,000 news articles and announcements. Be sure to check not only today's stories, but take a look at the headlines from the past several days as well. Articles often come to my attention a few days after they are published. ~ Jym St. Pierre, RESTORE: The North Woods |
Defining Wilderness: Defining Maine
Event - Posted - Sunday, February 05, 2012
This book discussion series is offered by the Maine Humanities Council. The discussions will be held at the Cary Memorial Library in Wayne on four Mondays: Feb 13, Mar 19, Apr 23, May 14. Discussion leader: Carol Kontos, English professor at UMA. |
Windfall
Announcement - Sunday, February 05, 2012
We can all agree that energy independence is a worthy objective, right? Alternative energy sources like solar power can help free the U.S. from fossil fuels and the grip of unstable Persian Gulf states. And wind power — wait, not so fast, says “Windfall,” Laura Israel’s urgent, informative and artfully assembled documentary. An account of rural Meredith, in upstate New York, when wind turbines came to town, the film depicts the perils of a booming industry and the bitter rancor it sowed among a citizenry. ~ Andy Webster, New York Times |
Intro to Winter Camping, Feb 10-12
Event - Posted - Friday, February 03, 2012
Introduction to Winter Camping with David Butler. This course will provide information about the skills to maximize your winter camping experience. At Hidden Valley Nature Center, Jefferson, Feb 10-12. |
Tracking with a naturalist, Feb 10
Event - Posted - Friday, February 03, 2012
Join naturalist Nancy Holmes to learn how to identify the animal tracks you will (hopefully) see in the snow this winter. At Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association office, Jefferson, Feb 10, 3:30 pm. |
Dirty Tar Sands Oil Coming Through Maine? Feb 9
Event - Posted - Thursday, February 02, 2012
Learn about the environmental and safety risks of this proposed project and about ways you can join the effort to prevent Portland from becoming the tar sands capital of the eastern U.S. The Canadian oil and gas giant Enbridge is proposing to pump dirty tar sands oil from Ontario to South Portland, where it would be shipped by tanker to refineries along the East Coast or Gulf of Mexico. The pipeline passes next to Sebago Lake, the drinking water supply for more than 15% of Maine people, and could endanger Casco Bay and our fishing and lobster industries. At USM, Glickman Library, Portland, Feb 9, 7-8:30 pm |
The Wildness Within: Remembering David Brower
Publication - Wednesday, February 01, 2012
The twentieth-century environmental movement owes much to a single man: David Brower. For the hundredth anniversary of David Brower’s birth, his son Kenneth Brower, an acclaimed nature writer, has brought together the testimonies of twenty environmental leaders whose lives and careers were transformed by David Brower; the result is a book in which a repertory company of path-forgers reveal their deepest values and most moving experiences. Available May 2012 from Heyday. |
Reducing coastal erosion, Feb 8
Event - Posted - Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Megan Facciolo, district manager of the Hancock County Soil and Water Conservation District, will talk about reducing coastal erosion. At Lamoine Town Hall, Feb 8, 7 pm. Sponsored by Lamoine Conservation Commission. |
Managing Your Timber Harvest, Feb 8
Event - Posted - Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Maine Forest Service District Forester Morten Moesswilde will talk about harvest planning, working with professional foresters and loggers, different harvest methods, wood values, closing out the job, and other aspects of harvesting. At Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association office, Jefferson, Feb 8, 6-8 pm. |
Birds, Bats & Blades-Wind Turbines & Wildlife, Feb 7
Event - Posted - Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Steve Pelletier, Wildlife Ecologist, Stantec, speaks about bats and wind power. At Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick, Nov 7, 7 pm. Sponsored by Friends of Merrymeeting Bay. |
Winter Extremes: Oh, Deer, Feb 7
Event - Posted - Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife Regional Biologist Keel Kemper will discuss current wildlife issues, including the effects of severe winters on Maine's deer herd. At Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association office in Sheepscot Village, Newcastle, Feb 7, 6:30 pm. |
Great blue heron flies into Merryspring, Feb 7
Event - Posted - Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Danielle D’Auria, Maine wildlife biologist, will give a presentation on the Great Blue Heron at Merryspring Nature Center, Camden, Feb 7 at noon. |
Smelt/Ice Festival, Feb 3-4
Event - Posted - Saturday, January 28, 2012
Ice Cutting-Smelt Fishing Festival. At Mailly Waterfront Park, Bowdoinham, Feb 3-4. Part of a yearlong celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Town of Bowdoinham. |
Family Winter Ecology Festival, Feb 4
Event - Posted - Saturday, January 28, 2012
This year’s Family Winter Ecology Festival will offer a variety of free indoor and outdoor activities for the entire family. At Merryspring Nature Center, Camden, Feb 4, 10 am to 12:30 pm. |
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Trip offers new take on food's future
Morning Sentinel - Monday, November 30, 2009
Jay Nutting, a 33-year-old lobbyist, recently completed an overseas trip as an Eisenhower Fellow for Agriculture. Nutting, son of Leeds dairy farm Sen. John Nutting, says while farmers are feeling the brunt of climate change in other countries, U.S. farmers are contributing to the problem. Nutting said 20 percent of the fossil fuel used in the United States is for agriculture and food production. "Nobody's talking about that." |
Opinion: Gun ownership part of proud Maine tradition
Bangor Daily News - Monday, November 30, 2009
The recent lead editorial, “Lawyers, Guns and Money” (BDN, Nov. 21-22), following the five-part series on guns in Maine, might have been more accurate and less shameful. The shame lies in the failure to warn those who come to Maine to try to change the tradition of Maine, in effect, bring with them to Maine the essence of what they came to Maine to escape. |
Base price
Mainebiz - Monday, November 30, 2009
The $891M hole it will leave in Maine’s economy begs the question for Brunswick Naval Air Station: What’s next? “We have the opportunity to lead the way in Maine in new areas, like renewable energy and aerospace clusters,” says Steve Levesque, executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority. |
King of the range
Mainebiz - Monday, November 30, 2009
Thanksgiving arrives at Maine’s largest turkey farm. Orders are down — yet size is up. |
Backyard weather watchers sought in Maine
Associated Press - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Volunteer weather observers are being sought to take precipitation measurements across Maine. The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network is offering six training sessions between Dec. 1 - 9. |
Northern New England launches ski season
Associated Press - Sunday, November 29, 2009
As the economy lurches toward recovery, northern New England’s ski industry is viewing the season with optimism, saying the amount of snow nature sends the region is a much bigger factor in determining how well the ski areas fare. |
Comment period ending for Maine ocean wind sites
Associated Press - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Monday is the last day that the Department of Conservation is accepting comments on potential sites. A final decision is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 15. |
Maine puts out guide to help businesses
Associated Press - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection has developed a tool it says will help businesses understand the laws that are designed to protect Maine’s air, land and water. |
Buying Woodland for Fun and Profit
Other - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Forbes - The USDA estimates the nation has 500 million acres of timberland. The ownership breakdown is: government, 27%; wood and paper companies, 17%; institutional investors like college endowments, 4%; individuals, 54%, up from 45% two decades ago. The individuals get a mix of recreation and asset appreciation. They get a nice tax break, too. |
Augusta Trails receives $10,000 grant
Capital Weekly - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Augusta Trails says the Davis Conservation Foundation has awarded a $10,000 grant to the “Bond Brook Recreation Area Trails Project” Capital Campaign. The campaign seeks to raise $480,000 for the creation of a four-season, multi-use recreational trail network at Bond Brook Recreation Area. Once completed, the trails will support more than 17 miles of hiking, mountain-biking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, trail running, walking, nature viewing and birding. |
Opinion: Wind industry must be stopped
Sun Journal - Sunday, November 29, 2009
The facts about wind power have been concealed behind the propaganda that has accompanied the wind industry's well planned assault on Maine. Claims of climate benefits by the wind industry, the government and once respected environmental groups have been grossly exaggerated. It is time for the governor, the legislature and the NRCM to admit they made a mistake, correct it and move on with a sensible agenda for Maine's energy future. |
Family in tow as man hikes Appalachian Trail
Sun Journal - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Tim Pettingill spent five and a half months hiking the Appalachian Trail from north to south. During the week, as Pettingill roamed the woods on the long haul south, his family was driving and living in a 1988 Ford van bought just for this trip, exploring the towns they passed through. When Saturday rolled around, Pettingill would hike out of the woods and meet his family. |
Opinion: Coyote attacks
Sun Journal - Sunday, November 29, 2009
In October a young female hiker, Taylor Mitchell, was attacked by two coyotes in Nova Scotia. The woman died from her wounds. It is too bad that it takes an innocent young woman's agonizing death for people to see this canine predator for what it is: an effective and opportunistic killing machine that will attack, kill and eat whatever it can, whenever it can, wherever it can. Our increasingly plentiful Eastern coyotes in Maine are evolving into larger animals that more resemble their wolf progenitors than the scraggly coydogs of yesteryear. |
Moving right along
Portland Press Herald - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Bath Trails is a group that emerged from the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust and gathered momentum to link the trust's land, the city's open space and future easements on private land. The result will soon be a five-mile network of trails running through thick woods and allowing hikers and bikers to take in river views just a few miles from downtown. |
Unique meteor shower and Mars will draw eyes skyward
Portland Press Herald - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Even though the next month will be much colder than November, there will be several interesting celestial events. These include a good meteor shower and the brightening of our neighboring planet, Mars. We are celebrating Galileo's great discoveries with his telescopes 400 years ago during this entire year, which is a way of making more people aware of the importance of astronomy in our everyday lives. |
Tips to take good outdoor winter photos
Portland Press Herald - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Keep yourself and your batteries warm, watch your step and your breath, keep your camera cool, overexpose snow, and use as little sky in your shot as possible. |
Man behind raptor cams sets sights on owls
Portland Press Herald - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Now a senior scientist and deputy director at the BioDiversity Research Institute in Gorham, Wing Goodale got the institute's first bald eagle cam up and running in 2005. The institute had a loon cam, since 2003. Today it has two bald eagle cams up, and plans for more. Anyone know where there are nesting bard owls? |
Deer up north could use more warmth
Portland Press Herald - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Except for southern Maine, deer hunting reports everywhere speak of a thinned herd, and in northern Maine it may well be at historically low levels. |
Deer success may take years longer than expected
Portland Press Herald - Sunday, November 29, 2009
I swung the gun, put the crosshairs on his chest and paused for one extra second. It was over in an instant. The sound of a buck fleeing though the brush barely outlasted the echo of the shot. I climbed down from my perch and hurried over to where I'd last seen the deer. Crimson splotches on the leaves confirmed I'd at least connected. But how well? The answer came 50 yards further on. I'd finally made amends for my miss, and it only took 20 minutes – and 11 years. |
Birds can make it tricky to put a species label on them
Morning Sentinel - Sunday, November 29, 2009
The families and orders into which birds are classified are pigeonholes defined by scientists. The only taxonomic unit that is defined by nature is the species. Recognizing species is not as easy as one might think. A recent scientific review showed that there are more than 60 definitions of species. |
Beetle's threat to ash trees also puts tribal art at risk
Portland Press Herald - Sunday, November 29, 2009
Maine Forest Service entomologist Charlene Donahue says it's only a matter of time before the emerald ash borer beetle arrives in Maine and decimates the ash trees here. Native American basket makers in Maine worry that will spell the end of their long tradition. The state's tribes make their traditional baskets from the wood of ash trees. |
New policies simplify winter use of Baxter State Park
Other - Sunday, November 29, 2009
There's good news for winter hikers and climbers frustrated by the old Baxter winter-permit system. Things have changed, and the formerly rigid process of organizing an extended winter visit has been streamlined. |
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Natural Resources Council
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Do I Dare to Plant a Peach? | | It's a sign that Maine and the nation are getting hotter, according to a new analysis by the U.S. De... | | 1/30/2012 12:00:00 AM |
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Maine Organic Farmers and
Gardeners Association
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The myth of the self-made yeoman |  By Gene Logsdon – No figure is more endearing and enduring in agriculture than the lonely plowman out there on the horizon who raises himself by his own bootstraps to financial success. Only problem is, there is no occupation more dependent on the cooperation of society and nature to achieve success than farming. | | 11/2/2011 12:00:00 AM |
Sharp, careful eye brings Maine mushrooms from forest to table |  By Avery Yale Kamila – On a crisp morning at the end of October, chef David Ross and I step off a dirt road in Kennebunk and head into a forest dominated by pines and smaller hardwood. Our objective: To track down a few chanterelles and any other wild mushrooms we can find this late in the season. This trip will mark one of the last of the year for Ross, who is an avid mushroom forager and the owner of 50 Local in Kennebunk. | | 11/2/2011 12:00:00 AM |
New climate prediction: ‘Weird’, getting weirder |  By Seth Borenstein (AP) – For a world already weary of weather catastrophes, the latest warning from top climate scientists paints a grim future: more floods, more heat waves, more droughts, and greater costs to deal with them. A draft summary of an international scientific report obtained by The Associated Press says the extremes caused by global warming could eventually grow so severe that some locations become “increasingly marginal as places to live.” | | 11/2/2011 12:00:00 AM |
What to feed your chickens to get the best eggs |  By Nina Lalli – "I have a theory, and I don't think you're gonna like it." Justin was seated across from me at a communal table in a "Secret Restaurant." We had met not half an hour before, but were now deep in discussion about what chickens should eat to produce the best-tasting eggs – an obsession of mine recently. | | 11/1/2011 12:00:00 AM |
Factory farming: not just on land anymore |  By Wenonah Hauter – When most people think of factory farming they typically think of feedlots, hog factories or chicken operations–not massive open net pens growing millions of fish in our oceans. However, factory fish farming will soon pose many of the same threats to the environment and to consumers as its land-based counterparts. | | 11/1/2011 12:00:00 AM |
Bt resistant rootworm spreads | | By Dr Eva Sirinathsinghji – Bt is a toxin from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which produces a large family of similar proteins that target different insect pests; and quite a few of them have been incorporated in genetically modified crops to act as ‘biopesticides’. Unfortunately, the pests soon develop resistance to it. | | 10/31/2011 12:00:00 AM |
Cranberry juice beats extract at fighting infection |  By Christine Lepisto – Just between you and me, ladies, what do you do when you feel that irritating burn, knowing it can only mean a urinary tract infection? Do you run to the doctor's office for antibiotics, only to fight the yeast infection that sets in when drugs knock other systems out of balance? Then you probably haven't heard yet that cranberries can fight infections naturally, and very effectively. | | 10/30/2011 12:00:00 AM |
‘Hobby farm’ couple do part, feed hungry |  By Bill Nemitz – It's not uncommon for someone to show up at the Bread of Life Soup Kitchen in Augusta with a bag full of fresh broccoli, tomatoes or other leftovers from their garden. In recent months, however, Glenn and Rachel Powers have taken that kind of community support to a whole new level. They're giving away the farm. | | 10/30/2011 12:00:00 AM |
New England shrimp target cut in half | | AP – Portland: Fisheries regulators have set the start date for the shrimp season and halved the target for the amount of shrimp to be caught by New England fishermen. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission on Friday set a target of 2,000 metric tons, compared with 4,000 metric tons the year before. | | 10/29/2011 12:00:00 AM |
The life of a seaweed gatherer |  By Daniel Klein – Most of the seaweed we get these days is farmed. But way up in northern Maine, Larch Hanson is still harvesting it wild in its many varieties on the rugged coast. This video isn't about the details of that process, however. It's about the essence of life for Larch, who rises at dawn to cut seaweed and then writes Zen poems about it. | | 10/28/2011 12:00:00 AM |
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