Maine Environmental News

News Items

Opinion: Logging bill can help correct a long history of injustice in Maine woods
Bangor Daily News - Monday, May 13, 2019
Logger and Maine Senate President Troy Jackson recently introduced LD 1459, a bill that would, for the first time in history, give Maine contract loggers the legal right to collectively bargain for fair compensation. The independence of contract work has been valued by Maine loggers since the 19th century but as a legal designation contracting has kept workers apart and competing. This benefits mills and landowners, but harms loggers. LD 1459 will make it legal for loggers to collaborate while giving them independence in day-to-day work. This legislation is vitally important as the industry enters what might be a period of growth. ~ Jason L. Newton, Cornell University

Chairman’s departure leaves Maine PUC with vacancy at critical time
Portland Press Herald - Monday, May 13, 2019
The chairman of Maine’s Public Utilities Commission has left his job, creating a void in an agency that is at the center of divisive issues including energy policy and power company rates. Mark Vannoy resigned May 3. His six-year term had officially expired on March 31, but he stayed on an additional month before stepping down. Gov. Janet Mills has yet to nominate a replacement. There has been much speculation in energy circles about whether Mills will shift the direction of PUC decisions by appointing a chair who’s likely to look more favorably on renewable energy and be tougher on utilities.

What to expect for this year’s tick season in Maine
Bangor Daily News - Monday, May 13, 2019
Tick season is in full swing in Maine, and so far, weather conditions have been favorable for these dangerous pests. This may not bode well for the months ahead. In addition, Maine just experienced a relatively snowy winter. Snow protects and insulates overwintering ticks, helping them survive the cold months. To date, 16 species of ticks have been identified in Maine, but for years, people have only worried about one species: the backlogged tick, the sole vector for Lyme disease. But the lone star tick recently became established as far north as Massachusetts. This species can transmit a number of dangerous pathogens to people. Their bite can also cause people to become allergic to red meat.

Massachusetts man held in connection with attack on Appalachian Trail hikers in Virginia
Washington Post - Monday, May 13, 2019
A Massachusetts man faces federal charges in the brutal attack Saturday on two Appalachian Trail hikers that left a man dead and a woman hospitalized with severe stab wounds. James Louis Jordan, 30, was arrested early Saturday after sheriff’s deputies located him along the trail in Virginia. It is high season for “thru-hikers” traveling the length of the famed scenic trail, which stretches along 2,100 miles from Georgia to Maine. In late April, Jordan pleaded guilty to charges of drug possession and criminal impersonation stemming from a confrontation with hikers in Tennessee. He was sentenced to probation, fined and released from custody. Sheriff Mike Hensley said, "I took him off the trail. But the courts deemed something else." Odie Norman, publisher of the Hiker Yearbook, said he met Jordan shortly after his Tennessee arrest. He said it was clear to him that Jordan was mentally ill.

How you can repel disease-carrying ticks without any chemicals
Bangor Daily News - Monday, May 13, 2019
In many regions, disease-ridden ticks are a major concern, serious enough to convince some people to douse their lawns with pesticides and chemically treat their outdoor clothing. Yet many people are opposed to introducing synthetic chemicals into the environment. Researchers have searched for natural methods of repelling ticks from property and people:
• Remove tick habitat
• Exclude tick hosts
• Natural tick repellent
• Can farm birds help?
• Personal protection is key

Finding consensus on whale protections a tough call in Maine
Portland Press Herald - Monday, May 13, 2019
Federal regulators have given Maine’s lobster industry its marching orders: Find a way to cut the number of surface-to-seabed fishing lines by 50 percent to help prevent the injury or death of even one of the endangered right whales that pass through the Gulf of Maine. The National Marine Fisheries Service is allowing each lobstering state to develop its own plan to protect the whale, whose numbers have fallen to a little more than 400 in recent years. But it will be hard to find one way to make it work in Maine, where the $485 million-a-year fishery is known for its diversity.

Portland pier owners warn zoning changes would choke future revenue
Portland Press Herald - Monday, May 13, 2019
A trio of pier owners contend that new restrictions on waterfront development would cripple the potential revenue they need to maintain Portland’s working waterfront. But city officials question the accuracy of that claim and support a battery of zoning changes intended to preserve fishing and marine businesses in the downtown. Zoning changes to the central waterfront closest to Portland’s Old Port would restrict non-marine commercial development, eliminate contract and conditional zoning, and prohibit businesses such as restaurants and retail.

Letter: Vermont power line has not been rejected
Kennebec Journal - Monday, May 13, 2019
As part of the team developing the New England Clean Power Link in Vermont, I want to clarify a misstatement in a letter (“Mill should reject CMP corridor”). This letter stated that the transmission line had been rejected by Vermont. To be clear, the fully buried NECPL project in Vermont has already been issued permits by the state of Vermont and federal agencies and enjoys widespread support among Vermonters. ~ Josh Magneto, TDI, Syracuse, New York

Letter: Bottled water tax unfairly targets Poland Spring
Portland Press Herald - Monday, May 13, 2019
As someone who has spent my entire adult career in banking and finance, I have watched with dismay the effort in the Legislature to levy a 12-percent extraction tax on bottled water. It’s clear Poland Spring is the target, since it’s the only company in the state that meets the bill’s eligibility for the tax. By legislating a tax targeted at a single company, the State of Maine is sending a clear message to other companies: Beware of doing business in Maine. Poland Spring employs nearly 900 Mainers. Poland Spring’s overall economic effect in Maine, in 2016, was $391 million. Allow more Mainers to have good-paying jobs. Allow businesses to grow. Allow the state to become known as friendly to business and families. ~ Jim Delimiter, Oxford

Letter: Oil pipeline can’t be swapped for CMP proposal
Portland Press Herald - Monday, May 13, 2019
As a retired CMP environmental engineer, I want to comment on legislation requiring CMP to evaluate Portland Pipe Line as an underground conduit for CMP’s proposed transmission connection to Hydro-Quebec. The pipeline likely has contamination. Be wary of any initiative that could expose the state or utility customers to financial liability. The line has three pipes, only one of which is decommissioned, and is insufficient size to accommodate the electric cables. Heavy conductor cannot handle sharp bends, and the curvature of the pipe may in places require relocation. The pipeline doesn’t align with either proposed transmission interconnection point. The pipeline alternative would trigger a new permit request with unknown delays and costs. CMP’s proposed overhead transmission route represents the best solution. ~ Roy Koster, Portland

Letter: NECEC a cleaner, greener option
Bangor Daily News - Monday, May 13, 2019
The New England Clean Energy Connect is a project Maine badly needs. It will bring thousands of construction jobs with it and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into our economy. But what’s even more impressive are the benefits that come with it to Maine’s environment. The path does not run through any pristine forest and concern over the Kennebec Gorge has been greatly reduced now that CMP has decided to run the line under the river as opposed to over it. That’s important to me being a fisherman, a hunter and somebody who enjoys all the outdoor opportunities our beautiful state has to offer. ~ Carl Wallace, South Gardiner

Top 6 Acadia carriage road loop hikes for end of mud season
Acadia On My Mind Blog - Sunday, May 12, 2019
Here are interactive Google My Maps and color-coded elevation profiles for Acadia National Park carriage road loop hikes of between 3 to 6 miles:
1) Hulls Cove to Paradise Hill, Witch Hole Pond and Duck Brook Bridge
2) Jordan Pond to Stanley Brook, Cobblestone, Jordan Pond Bridges
3) Jordan Pond to Deer Brook Bridge via trail, carriage road
4) Day Mountain via carriage road and trail
5) Amphitheater via carriage road and Asticou & Jordan Pond Path
6) Upper Hadlock Pond loop to Waterfall and 2 other bridges

Richmond farm offers goat snuggling on Mother’s Day
Kennebec Journal - Sunday, May 12, 2019
Hundreds of guests, largely small families, made the trip to Rock Bottom Farm in Richmond on Mother’s Day to snuggle with the nannies, billies and kids and take a tour of the farm. Rock Bottom Farm owners Scott MacMaster and Melissa Hackett said more than 400 people attended the event.

Maine’s top court wades into Kennebunkport beach dispute
Associated Press - Sunday, May 12, 2019
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is wading into a long-running beach dispute in Kennebunkport. The court will hear an appeal this week by several property owners who disputed a ruling that the town established ownership from the sea wall to the low water mark at Goose Rocks Beach. A judge ruled more than a year ago in the case, finding the town owns the beach to the low water mark in front of 22 out of 23 beachfront parcels whose owners sued in 2009. Kennebunkport called it a victory for those who believe the beach should be open for all to enjoy.

Imagining Burial
Emergence magazine - Sunday, May 12, 2019
A “cemetery” might now be a forest of kin. Consider the Capsula Mundi, a design project wherein, upon death, the body is folded up very compactly and laid in a “capsula,” a biodegradable, egg-shaped pod (“an ancient and perfect form,” say the designers), then planted in the earth and topped with a young tree. A place where decay emancipates growth, penetralia sinks its green roots in.

This season may be the worst yet for browntail moths in Maine
Maine Sunday Telegram - Sunday, May 12, 2019
Tiny browntail moth caterpillars are starting to emerge from their winter webs at the tops of oak trees. In two years, the range of high-risk areas for infestation has expanded from Brunswick area to many other towns. The caterpillars haven’t reached Portland in high numbers yet, but every year they slink closer. Maine lawmakers are considering a bill to combat the growing browntail moth problem with $274,000 in funding for research at UMaine, which collaborates with the forest service. Scientists are trying to figure out effective ways to control the population. This season is predicted to be among the worst in recent memory for the browntail moth.

Electric bike sales grow, as new models become lighter
Maine Sunday Telegram - Sunday, May 12, 2019
Electric bike owners often say they considered e-bikes demeaning, a bit of a joke, and an expensive, temporary fad – until they tried one. Once they pedaled the newest generation of e-bikes, their preconceptions were upended – for a host of reasons, but chiefly because today’s e-bikes are far lighter and sleeker than they used to be and now look like traditional bikes. Bikes that used to weigh 80 to 90 pounds now weigh as little as 30 pounds. E-bike sales in the United States have soared from $42 million in 2016 to $142 million in 2018.

Is Maine’s recycling in the trash?
Sun Journal - Sunday, May 12, 2019
At the urging of Mayor Jason Levesque, Auburn will consider whether it should end the city’s recycling program. Auburn has plenty of company. Recycling programs have been stopped or reduced by a growing number of Maine towns and cities. Natural Resources Council of Maine officials said more than 180,000 Mainers, representing 14 percent of the state’s population, live where recycling programs have been cut or restricted or are at risk. NRCM is advocating state lawmakers pass LD 1431 to help municipalities cover recycling costs. The bill calls for packaging-material producers to help pay for recycling. That kind of policy exists in other countries, including Canada, protecting recycling programs in the face of market changes.

Auburn super recycler: Zero-sort ‘not effective’
Sun Journal - Sunday, May 12, 2019
Silver Moore-Leamon carefully sorts her recyclables and puts them in a barrel marked “recycle” with a cover to keep contents dry. The retired educator said she’s “200%” committed to recycling. Ending recycling “would be suicide." The public needs to understand that all of the trash “doesn’t go away." And “incinerating the trash puts pollutants into the air, and even more significantly, wastes the recyclable materials." Since zero-sort recycling began, “It’s not effective,” said the 85-year-old. With the best intentions “you can end up contaminating it” by putting in items not recyclable.

Column: Scraggly Lake is a remote, beautiful getaway
Morning Sentinel - Sunday, May 12, 2019
Northeast of Baxter State Park is the 9,092-acre Scraggly Lake Public Lands unit in the unorganized township of T7 R8. The big draw is Scraggly Lake, a pristine 836-acre expanse of brook trout and landlocked salmon, surrounded by thick woods and bumpy hills. Several other remote ponds, numerous brooks and 1,400 acres of wetlands are found at Scraggly Lake. There’s also a stand of hemlocks ranging from 20 to 35 inches in diameter — some thought to be over 300 years old. ~ Carey Kish

Column: Weather has an impact on turkey behavior
Maine Sunday Telegram - Sunday, May 12, 2019
Weather can be a strong influence on turkey behavior and therefore, how to go about hunting them. On rainy days, they typically linger longer on the roost. Once on the ground, they tend to be less interested in breeding and more interested in feeding, and spend more time in open areas like pastures and fields. Camping out in the comfort of a ground blind on a field edge is a far more productive tactic on rainy days than is running and gunning. As a guide, I’m often asked about predicting turkey behavior. We all want turkeys to follow predictable patterns, and sometimes they do. But I would never bet money on it. ~ Bob Humphrey

Column: Climate change causing birds to migrate earlier in the spring
Maine Sunday Telegram - Sunday, May 12, 2019
We have some intriguing long-term records of spring-time bird arrivals in upstate New York and Worcester County in Massachusetts. Short-distance migrants like yellow-rumped warblers and common grackles are arriving about 11 days earlier now. Long-distance migrants that winter in the Caribbean, Central America or South America are arriving about four days earlier. In Maine, only nine of 78 species arrived earlier in the 1994-2017 period than in 1899-1911. Twenty-two species are arriving later now. For 47 species, we found no difference in average arrival dates. ~ Herb Wilson

Opinion: Mainers right to be skeptical that USMCA will fix farmers’ woes
Sun Journal - Sunday, May 12, 2019
The national Chamber of Commerce-funded Trade Works for America is airing ads in Maine promoting the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA or New NAFTA). Featuring a Maine dairy farmer saying, “old trade agreements are hurting us,” the ad calls on Rep. Jared Golden to support the USMCA, implying it is new and improved and will, therefore, fix Maine farmers’ problems. Analysis by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy makes clear that the NAFTA revamp doubles down on corporate-written policies that will worsen the economic headwinds faced by rural economies and farming families, lower food safety standards and make it much more difficult to inform consumers through nutritional and ingredient labeling. ~ Sharon Treat, Maine Citizen Trade Policy Commission

Opinion: History won’t stop for zoning
Maine Sunday Telegram - Sunday, May 12, 2019
Climate change will not respect zoning. By the end of this century, sea level is estimated to rise between one and six feet, assuming that we take action to reduce carbon emissions. If we don’t, the people of Portland in 2100 could see water levels that are six to ten meters higher than today. If there are any fishermen left, they won’t have to worry about Commercial Street traffic because the cars will be underwater. A warming planet is already making many places around the world uninhabitable. That is going to drive global migration that will shape a northern city like Portland much as European wars, famines and oppression did in the 19th century. ~ Greg Kesich

Letter: CMP power line would fragment forest
Maine Sunday Telegram - Sunday, May 12, 2019
Commentaries by Lloyd Irland, Richard Anderson and Richard Barringer, in support of Central Maine Power’s New England Clean Energy Connect, have been disappointing. They have not disputed the serious environmental and natural resource impact from NECEC on wildlife habitats, cold water fisheries (native brook trout), wetlands, streams, valuable vernal pools and endangered wildlife documented in reports from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the Maine Natural Areas Program, testimony from ecologist Janet S. McMahon, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. NECEC will not tread lightly on the western Maine Mountains. Significantly less impactful alternative routes and design (underground) exist for this transmission line which CMP and regulators have thus far failed to explore. ~ John Nicholas, Winthrop

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