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May 19, 2013
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Press releases, events, publications released, etc. from Maine environmental organizations and agencies. Submit content.
Maine Environmental News
Announcement - Saturday, May 18, 2013
Thanks for visiting Maine Environmental News, the most comprehensive online source available for links to Maine conservation and natural resource news stories and events. I have posted links to more than 23,000 news articles and announcements. I also post breaking stories and exclusives. Be sure to check not only today's news, 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. Will Sugg is the website developer. ~ Jym St. Pierre, RESTORE: The North Woods |
Thorne Head Birding, May 25
Event - Posted - Saturday, May 18, 2013
Thorne Head Preserve in Bath, on the Maine Birding Trail, is rich in migrating warblers and vireos.
Meet at CVS, Bath, May 25, 7:15 am to carpool. Sponsored by Merrymeeting Audubon, Kennebec Estuary Land Trust, and Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust. |
Pond Life: Gills, Webbing and Air Bubbles, May 25
Event - Posted - Saturday, May 18, 2013
Families are invited to the museum to dip nets in the pond and go on an exploration of wildlife that lives in the wetlands. See and learn how animals adapt to water. At L.C. Bates Museum, Hinckley, May 25,1 pm. |
10th Annual Down East Spring Birding Festival, May 24-27
Event - Posted - Friday, May 17, 2013
The annual Down East Spring Birding Festival provides a unique birding experience during spring migration and the breeding season with four days of self-guided explorations, guided hikes, boat tours and presentations led by area experts. May 24-27. |
Chimney Swifts, May 24
Event - Posted - Friday, May 17, 2013
Enjoy the spectacle of a hundred or more swifts in migration swirling into their chimney roost before they continue to their breeding locations. Carpool from Brunswick Hannaford, May 24 at 7 pm. Sponsored by Merrymeeting Audubon. |
Birding at Hedgehog Mountain, May 24
Event - Posted - Friday, May 17, 2013
Hedgehog Mountain is a gem owned by the town of Freeport. See migrating songbirds, including warblers, sparrows, grosbeaks, tanagers and more. May 24, 7–9 am. Maine Audubon members $5, non-members $8. |
Scarborough Marsh Full Moon Canoe Tour, May 24 & 25
Event - Posted - Friday, May 17, 2013
Experience the sights and sounds of marsh creatures under the full moon. At Scarborough Marsh, May 24 and May 25, 7:30–9:30 pm. Maine Audubon members $11, non-members $13. |
No Tar Sands Oil in Casco Bay
Action Alert - Thursday, May 16, 2013
This petition asks the South Portland City Council to protect public health, the environment, and property values from the impacts of transporting tar sands oil through South Portland and exporting it from Casco Bay. |
Ecopsychology, May 23
Event - Posted - Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Dennis Kiley from the Institute for Integrative Living will give this presentation about an emerging discipline that integrates the fields of ecology and psychology to support environmental and human growth. At Jesup Memorial Library, Bar Harbor, May 23 at 7 pm. |
Pennellville Birding, May 22
Event - Posted - Wednesday, May 15, 2013
This easy trail goes through varied habitats, by ponds and ends at a saltwater cove. You will see Bobolinks, woodpeckers, warblers, some nesting songbirds, and hopefully some ducks, eagles, hawks and ospreys. Meet at Brunswick Hannaford, May 22 at 7 am to carpool or at the soccer field on Pennellville Rd in Brunswick at 7:30 am. Sponsored by Merrymeeting Audubon. |
Day Hikes on the Appalachian Trail in Maine, May 22
Event - Posted - Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Aislinn Sarnacki, hiker and outdoors writer for the Bangor Daily News, will speak at a meeting of the Maine Appalachian Trail Club. At Brewer Performing Arts Center, May 22, at 6:30 pm. |
Accessing the Maine Coast
Announcement - Monday, May 13, 2013
In the mid 1970s the Maine State Planning Office completed an inventory of public access ways to the coast in Maine. That information has never been publicized. This website will not tell you where you can legally get to the water, but it contains information to help waterfront users, coastal communities, and land owners address issues related to coastal access cooperatively, possibly reducing the need for litigation. |
Bird Walk at Florida Lake, May 21
Event - Posted - Saturday, May 11, 2013
Florida Lake, owned by the Town of Freeport, includes a lake, surrounding wetlands and forested habitat. May 21, 7–9 am. Maine Audubon members $5, non-members $8. |
Water management class for foresters, May 21
Event - Posted - Saturday, May 11, 2013
Androscoggin Valley Soil and Water Conservation District, the Maine Forest Service and Kennebec Estuary Land Trust are partnering to offer a free workshop for anyone interested in learning best management practices for water management and protection at small- or largescale timber harvests. At the Bath City Hall auditorium, May 21, 8 am - 1 pm. |
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Thanks for visiting Maine Environmental News, the most comprehensive online source available for links to Maine conservation and natural resource news stories and events. If you are a regular visitor we strongly encourage you to make an annual donation of $35 or more to keep this service going.
Jym St. Pierre, RESTORE: The North Woods, Editor, Maine Environmental News.
Maine Environmental News is provided with free hosting and development by Planet Maine.
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Biddeford land deal secures heart of park
Portland Press Herald - Thursday, May 19, 2011
Most hikers and mountain bikers who use Clifford Park assume that the undeveloped land they traverse is all city-owned, when in fact some of the trails weave through private property. That will soon change, with the city's purchase of more than 50 acres of undeveloped land separating the two parcels that comprise Clifford Park. |
Bills to revamp, abolish Maine land board reviewed
Associated Press - Thursday, May 19, 2011
A Maine legislative committee will take a closer look at bills to abolish or drastically change the mission of the agency that oversees development in the state's 10-million-acre Unorganized Territory. The Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee on Thursday afternoon will hold work sessions on the bills. One would abolish the Land Use Regulation Commission, and another would alter its mission to serve residents and property owners within the jurisdiction of LURC. |
Bipartisan group supporting conflict-of-interest bill
Portland Press Herald - Thursday, May 19, 2011
A bipartisan group of legislative leaders is supporting a bill that would alter the conflict-of-interest law that prompted a Cabinet member to resign last month and brought new scrutiny to the state's Board of Environmental Protection. L.D. 1575, drafted by the LePage administration, is scheduled for a public hearing and a work session Friday before the Legislature's Environment and Natural Resources Committee. It would allow commissioners of the Department of Environmental Protection and members of the BEP who have received a certain percentage of their income from federal Clean Water Act permit holders in the past two years to serve in those positions, unlike current law. It also would establish a recusal process to prevent them from directly overseeing approval of such permits, a practice allowed under a similar federal law. |
Republicans take aim at LURC
New Maine Times - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Maine Senate President Kevin Raye led a full-scale attack on the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) on Tuesday, strongly backing a bill that would abolish the planning commission for the state’s unorganized territory. “In rural Maine, LURC is synonymous with government heavy-handedness and overreaching,” said Raye, whose diatribe against the commission left no doubt that ending LURC is a key issue for Republican leadership in the Legislature. He was backed up by a representative of Governor Paul LePage. Several other speakers argued for trying to improve LURC, and not abolish it. The Legislature’s Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee is scheduled to have a work session on the LURC bills on May 19 at 1 p.m. |
Residents Speak Out on T16 Wind Project
- Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Eastbrook residents Monday night urged the state Land Use Regulation Commission to honor their town’s wind ordinance if the commission approves a 34-megawatt wind farm in neighboring Township 16. Monday night’s public comment period was part of a two-day hearing on the permit application for the Bull Hill Wind Project at the Ellsworth Ramada. The project is proposed by Blue Sky East, a subsidiary of wind developer First Wind. The project involves construction of nineteen 476-foot turbines on the Bull Hill and Heifer Hill in T16. |
Author relives being lost
Capital Weekly - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
In the nearly silent room, children sat still, transfixed on the white-haired man telling a tale based on what happened to him as a child when he became lost in the woods. Donn Fendler later wrote a book about his experiences — required reading for many fourth-grade students — called “Lost on a Mountain in Maine.” Lincoln School students in Jessica Walling's fourth-grade class had the chance to meet the author May 17 when he spoke to the class, who recently finished reading his book. |
Freeport fields project gets $500K from L.L. Bean
Forecaster - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
L.L. Bean will donate $500,000 to the Freeport Fields and Trails project. David Latulippe, an organizer of Freeport Fields and Trails, said the private group still must raise about $250,000 to complete the funding. |
State gives tentative approval to $200,000 Howland cleanup grants
Bangor Daily News - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Howland town leaders have received conditional approval for about $200,000 in grants that would allow them to begin demolishing the former Howland tannery building, Town Manager Jane Jones said Wednesday. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection requires town leaders to answer some supplemental questions and provide a letter reaffirming its partnership with the Penobscot River Restoration Trust to get the funding, Jones said. |
Volunteers to improve Farmington trail system
Morning Sentinel - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
The Farmington Conservation Commission has pledged 100 hours of volunteer work tied to a $47,561 trail upgrade project in the 200 acres of forest on the edge of downtown Farmington, according to Pete Tracy, commission chairman. |
Opinion: How to Interpret Gov. LePage's Approval Ratings
Mike Tipping's Tipping Point Blog - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Three polls have been released in the last two weeks in which Maine voters were asked to express their opinion of Paul LePage and his performance as governor. Pan Atlantic SMS published a poll that showed 38.9% of Mainers with a somewhat or very favorable opinion of governor LePage. The Maine People’s Resource Center published a poll showing LePage with a job approval rating of 41.1%. Critical Insights published a poll that showed LePage with the approval of 31% of respondents. My best offhand guess for where LePage sits with the public, based on these polls, is probably an approval rating somewhere in the mid to high 30s, but with softer support than opposition. |
House gives final OK to regulatory reform bill
Associated Press - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
The Maine House has given its final approval to a bill to improve Maine's regulatory climate. Representatives voted 147-3 for the bill, which awaits final Senate approval pending a fiscal review. Originally proposed by Gov. Paul LePage, the bill underwent significant changes. The version that passed Wednesday establishes an environmental self-audit program, strengthens the business assistance office in the Department of Economic and Community Development, streamlines permitting, and trims the size of the Board of Environmental Protection from 10 to seven. It also creates a position within the Secretary of State's office to advocate on behalf of certain businesses. |
16 cities and towns to split state funds for recycling
Bangor Daily News - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Several municipalities and organizations from Alfred to Lubec will split more than $300,000 in grants from the State Planning Office to help expand recycling programs, specifically for corrugated cardboard and yard and leaf waste. |
Hermon lands recreation trails grant
Bangor Daily News - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
The $21,518 grant from the Recreational Trails Program will be used to create a recreational path for pedestrians and bicycle riders from Hermon Middle School to Hermon High School. |
Wind power proposal debated in Hancock County
Bangor Daily News - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Opponents and supporters of a proposed commercial wind power development in Township 16 made their cases Tuesday to the Land Use Regulation Commission. Tuesday night’s public hearing followed a full day of technical testimony during which First Wind subsidiary Blue Sky East and Concerned Citizens of Rural Hancock County, a group that is opposed to the project, each presented information. Blue Sky East is proposing to erect 19 turbines, each 476 feet tall at the highest tip of a vertical blade, in Township 16. The company is planning to put more turbines in neighboring Eastbrook as part of the same project. |
Belfast cuts trees so wind turbine parts can pass
Bangor Daily News - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Two trees that have been standing in the way of a plan to transport giant wind blade components from the ocean terminal at Mack Point to western Maine are going to come down. |
LePage: Brown won't be reappointed to DEP despite bill amending conflict provision
Sun Journal - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
As promised, Gov. Paul LePage has introduced a late bill that will amend conflict-of-interest rules to ensure that individuals with a development background can serve on the state's citizen environmental board. The bill could also conceivably allow LePage's recently resigned commissioner of environmental protection to return to his post. However, the governor emphasized Wednesday that he has no intention of reappointing Darryl Brown as DEP chief. |
LePage Proposes to Change Maine's Conflict of Interest Laws
Maine Public Broadcasting Network - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Just weeks after Darryl Brown was forced to resign as the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection because of an apparent conflict of interest, the LePage administration has submitted emergency legislation to resolve similar conflicts in the future. The bill, which has bipartisan support, also addresses potential conflicts by the citizen members of the Board of Environmental Protection. But the environmental attorney who first raised the issue of Brown's conflict thinks the bill sends the wrong message and will create more problems. |
Favorite Places in Maine: Horseshoe crabs of Bagaduce River
Bangor Daily News - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Kayaking into the reversing waterways of the upper Bagaduce in Sedgwick is an annual ritual that coincides with the horseshoe crab mating season. Near Bagaduce Falls in Sedgwick, these amazing creatures, which have been around since the dinosaurs, converge, waiting for ideal conditions. |
Lawmakers defend potatoes against USDA
Associated Press - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Sen. Susan Collins, at a March Senate hearing on the USDA budget, hoisted a standard-fare brown-skinned spud in one hand and, in the other, a head of iceberg lettuce, which hasn’t come under explicit federal scrutiny. One medium white potato contains nearly twice the vitamin C “as this entire head,” she said, asking: “So my question, Mr. Secretary, is what does the department have against potatoes?” It’s a refrain some in Congress are using more frequently to describe the Obama administration’s efforts to get kids to eat healthier foods. |
Opinion: USDA Threatens to Limit Potatoes in Schools- Um, Where is Governor LePage?
Dirigo Blue Blog - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
The Wall Street Journal has an excellent write-up, "Spuds, on the Verge of Being Expelled, Start a Food Fight in the Cafeteria" in which Senator Collins spoke up in support of the potato industry, discussing nutritional values. But not a peep from Maine Governor Paul LePage. In fact, the only member of the LePage administration to speak up at all, regarding potatoes as an industry, has been now ex-Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Phillip Congdon, who made a glib, dismissive remark of how "Maine's potato farmers were wasting their spuds by selling them for french fries rather than vodka."
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Tensions build over renewable energy bill
Portland Press Herald - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
A partisan battle is emerging over a bill that would scale back a state law that requires 10 percent of Maine's electricity to come from renewable energy sources, such as wind power, by 2017. Supporters say the bill would lower Maine's energy costs and allow the state's manufacturers to be more competitive. Opponents say it represents a major shift in Maine's energy policy and would drive away investment for wind, tidal and biomass energy projects in the state.
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Opinion: Great resources, efficiency, marketing key to driving Maine's economy
Kennebec Journal - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Both Sappi and Poland Spring use a sustainable natural resource in efficient plants that employ lots of Mainers at very good wages. In Greene at the Hurricane Café & Grill, Phil Wilbur sells 300 gallons of soup each week, one-third to the owner of three restaurants in Manhattan that he found through Twitter. Another marketing lesson comes from Al Theriault, my favorite fly tier, who sells his flies in retail stores throughout the north country and online. Great resources, efficiency and marketing are where the governor and Legislature should be looking for our economic future. ~ George Smith |
Letter: Wind projects 'poor choice' when looking at options
Kennebec Journal - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Why are the wind power developers' concerns of greater importance than those of the people who derive their livelihoods from the tourism-attracting qualities of our environment that would be diminished or destroyed by these developments? Given the limited numbers of jobs created by these developments, we would be better served by protecting the long-term opportunities that now exist because of the pristine, unspoiled conditions found in many of our mountainous regions. |
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Maine Organic Farmers
and Gardeners Assn
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Island gardens - veggies among the deer and rocks | | By Kaitlin Webber - Island gardens aren't that different from what I'm used to - apart from the layer of seaweed I spread last fall and the mussel shells that inexplicably keep rising to the surface. I'm also not used to having to keep all plants in maximum-security-prison mode. I left the netted gate open late last August and returned to find a vacant brown pit and a few beets with raccoon tooth marks. | | 5/16/2013 11:00:00 PM |
Genetically Modified Democracy: Monsanto and Congress Move to Stomp on Your Rights |  By Ronnie Cummins - Reliable sources in Washington D.C. have informed the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) that Monsanto has begun secretly lobbying its Congressional allies to attach one or more “Monsanto Riders” or amendments to the 2013 Farm Bill that would preempt or prohibit states from requiring labels on genetically engineered (GE) foods. | | 5/16/2013 11:00:00 PM |
Organic industry clout grows with consumer demand | | By Mary Clare Jalonick (AP): Washington - The organic food industry is gaining clout on Capitol Hill, prompted by rising consumer demand and its entry into traditional farm states. But that isn't going over well with everyone in Congress. Tensions between conventional and organic agriculture boiled over this week during a late-night House Agriculture Committee debate on a sweeping farm bill that has for decades propped up traditional crops and largely ignored organics. | | 5/16/2013 11:00:00 PM |
Old Orchard Beach butter maker faces loss of license | | By Jessica Hall - The Old Orchard Beach Town Council on Tuesday will consider revoking the business license of Kate's Homemade Butter, which has operated as a home-based business in the town since 1981. Kate's operates in about 1,000 square feet of space in a garage of an Old Orchard Beach home. The company has been building a 17,600-square-foot facility in Arundel, but that relocation has been slowed by past construction problems. | | 5/16/2013 11:00:00 PM |
Organic Valley ‘planning for a rebuild’ after fire | | By Allison Geyer - Displaced Organic Valley employees gathered outside a makeshift command post at the La Farge Community Temple on Wednesday afternoon, anxious to learn when - and how - they could get back to work. | | 5/15/2013 11:00:00 PM |
Diplomatic cables reveal aggressive GM lobbying by US officials | | By Suzanne Goldenberg - American diplomats lobbied aggressively overseas to promote genetically modified (GM) food crops such as soy beans, an analysis of official cable traffic revealed on Tuesday. The review of more than 900 diplomatic cables by the campaign group Food and Water Watch showed a carefully crafted campaign to break down resistance to GM products in Europe and other countries, and so help promote the bottom line of big American agricultural businesses. | | 5/14/2013 11:00:00 PM |
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Natural Resources Council
of Maine
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A Home Run for Maine Alewives | |
BENTON – Alewives are on pace for a record run in Benton, whose residents will celebrate their rel... | | 5/17/2013 12:00:00 AM |
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