Maine Environmental News

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Officials use fire to reshape habitat on Swan Island
Kennebec Journal - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
On Wednesday, a crew of Unity College students, state land management workers and volunteers systematically set grass fires in open fields on the east side of Swan Island at the head of Merrymeeting Bay. Then they monitored to make sure the flames did no more than burn off an accumulation of dead grasses and knock down a number of invasive plant species that have taken root on the island. John Pratte, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, said the long-term goal of the fires is to provide habitat on the island for native species of birds such as bobolinks, meadowlarks and Savannah sparrows. The management plan also is intended to support habitat for several species of butterflies, including the monarch, which is endangered.

As world's scientists raise extinction alarms, Trump guts Endangered Species Act
Other - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
The Hill - This week hundreds of scientists from more than 50 countries published an exhaustive report for the United Nations finding that as many as 1 million species are at risk of extinction. Their disturbing conclusion: The life-support systems we depend upon are unraveling. Despite this incredibly dire warning, the Trump administration and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt are working overtime to undermine protections for our nation’s most imperiled plants and animals.

Fox terrorizes 2 Maine homes, biting woman and dogs before being killed with shovel
Bangor Daily News - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
A Bowdoinham woman was bitten by a fox Tuesday evening shortly before the fox found its way into a neighboring house and was killed by a resident. Seven animals in Sagadahoc County have tested positive for rabies since February. Four animals have tested positive for rabies in Penobscot and Cumberland counties, while the remaining counties have seen three or fewer.

Don’t know which birds you spotted at Katahdin Woods & Waters? There’s now a list for that.
Bangor Daily News - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Birders and other visitors to Maine’s newest national monument will receive a valuable tool Saturday as Friends of Katahdin Woods & Waters releases a checklist of more than 150 birds that can be found in the monument. Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, which is about 90 miles north of Bangor, was officially designated as a unit of the National Park Service in August of 2016. The checklist release will coincide with World Migratory Bird Day. An electronic version is available online.

Woodward Point Protected
Maine Coast Heritage Trust - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Woodward Point is one of the few remaining undeveloped waterfront parcels of its size in Southern Maine, with 87 acres of forest and fields and over two miles of shoreline along two peninsulas on the New Meadows in Brunswick. Over the past several years, Maine Coast Heritage Trust and Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust have been working together to raise $3.5 million to protect and open to the public 87 acres at Woodward Point. This spring that goal was reached, and the property is now conserved. More than 150 individual donors and many organizations stepped up to contribute to this project.

Federal government donates $1 million toward Clark Island protection
Penobscot Bay Pilot - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has been awarded $1 million from the Department of the Interior’s National Coastal Wetland Conservation Grants program to help buy acreage of Clark Island land abutting the existing MDIFW conservation easement in Saint George. The site is to be a preserve that protects bird habitats and enhances wildlife-oriented recreation. MDIFW will work with Maine Coast Heritage Trust as a subrecipient for the Clark Island Wetlands Conservation Project. The Clark Island Project involves raising $4.8 million by March 2020 to purchase and put 85 percent of the 175-acre island into permanent protection, and 120 acres of that secured for public access.

Column: Horseshoe crabs and the beginning of time
Morning Sentinel - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
The earliest horseshoe crab fossil is about 445 million years old, which means they scuttled across the floors of Earth’s silent seas roughly 350 million years before any flower blossomed. They are the closest living relatives of the trilobites, who flourished during that first evolutionary explosion of multi-celled animals about 530 million years ago. Horseshoe crabs survived the mass extinctions on Earth 250 million and 66 million years ago. The future, however, is not so sure. Their populations are declining up and down the East Coast, mainly because of pollution, coastal development, and effects of climate change such as sea level rise and warming water. The Maine Wildlife Action Plan lists them as a Priority 1 Species of Greatest Conservation Need. ~ Dana Wilde

‘Highly hormonal’ turkeys sumo wrestle in the middle of a Maine road Turkey fight
Bangor Daily News - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Lindsay Curtis captured an hilarious video of two turkeys pushing each other back and forth on the road, almost like a pair of sumo wrestlers. Brad Allen, a wildlife biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said, “One can assume this is highly hormonal and part of the wild turkeys day-to-day life constantly assessing the pecking order of the flock and dominance of rival males, who at times are likely brothers."

Maine’s first eel season with new poaching controls is yielding strong prices
Associated Press - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Maine’s baby eel fishermen are enjoying a steady harvest and strong prices during the first season in which regulators are using new controls to stop poaching. Baby eels, called elvers, are one of the most lucrative marine resources in the United States on a per-pound basis, but the fishery has had problems with poaching. This year, packing and shipping of the fish – which are sold to Asian aquaculture companies so they can be raised to maturity and used as food, such as in sushi – is subject to more scrutiny by the Maine Marine Patrol.

Maine regulators will decide whether to boost moose permits by end of May
Associated Press - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Maine wildlife regulators will likely make a decision by the end of the month on a proposal to increase the number of moose hunting permits in the state for the second consecutive year. Biologists in the state have recommended increasing the number of moose permits by more than 10 percent, to more than 2,800.

Politics Trumps Science at the EPA
Sierra Club - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Once again, Trump administration cronies are denying peer-reviewed science. As chair of the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, Tony Cox — a former consultant for the American Petroleum Institute, the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, the Mining Industry, and a tobacco company — is questioning if fine particulate matter air pollution, also known as soot, actually causes premature death and other health issues. However, the science is clear that this type of pollution is very dangerous.

Young USM grad off to study Madagascar's lemurs
Forecaster - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
An 18-year-old who will graduate Saturday from the University of Southern Maine said he’s preparing to fulfill a childhood dream. Sam Matey will be studying lemurs in Madagascar this summer. Matey said he has been interested in environmental science ever since he read Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” when he was 7. He plans to attend graduate school eventually, either in environmental science or in a specialized sub-field such as conservation ecology. He interned with Maine Conservation Voters last summer, but he wants to gain more experience in the field before graduate school.

Here’s another water safety message for you to ignore
Bangor Daily News - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
During the first five months of 2018, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary organized five safety training opportunities in the Bangor area alone. You know how many people showed up? A grand total of zero. All it takes is one bad move, one medical emergency, one piece of bad luck, for a day on a beautiful lake to turn into the source of your family’s worst nightmare. Do yourself a favor. Do your loved ones a favor. Wear your life jacket. Return safely. It’s the least you can do.

George Clooney Torches Donald Trump’s ‘Rampant Dumbf**kery’ in Parody PSA
Other - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
George Clooney is done with the “rampant dumbf**kery” of people like President Donald Trump who question scientific research and spread disinformation on issues like climate change and vaccinations. [Caution: Some people may be offended by the language and the truth in this video.]

Belfast salmon farm opponents hope a new regulatory twist can thwart the project
Bangor Daily News - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Opponents of a proposed land-based salmon farm in Belfast are hoping that a potential snag with a land lease will prove to be the end of the road for Nordic Aquafarms. Upstream Watch and the Maine Lobstering Union, two groups that have worked to slow down or stop the fish farm, jointly submitted a second brief last week to the Maine Bureau of Public Lands. They objected to Nordic’s pending application for a submerged lands lease, arguing that the Norwegian-owned company does not have sufficient title, right or interest to cross the intertidal zone where it says it does. The company vehemently disagrees with this assessment.

Opinion: Human activities could erase 1 million of our fellow species
Kennebec Journal - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
It’s hard to imagine a more dire assessment of what we humans have done to the world than the 1,500-page United Nations report released Monday in Paris that says, among other things, that our collective activities have put some 1 million plant and animal species at risk of extinction. The report recommends a wide range of actions, including less intrusive and lower-impact land-use policies and integration of agriculture with development, stronger focus on conservation and retention of ecological diversity, localization (and “improved distribution”) of agricultural food chains, stronger marine protections and use policies, and in urban areas a better focus on sustainable development in making planning decisions. Of course, those steps require political will. We may be in trouble. ~ Editorial by Los Angeles Times

Opinion: Take action on carbon
Sun Journal - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
As severe storms race through America, spawning tornadoes, hail and floods, I wonder what must occur to move people to take action on mitigating climate change? Some already have loved ones affected by wildfires, intensified by high temperatures and drought. Many have been impacted by the spread of Lyme disease-carrying ticks. Grandparents are concerned for the future of their grandchildren who will live with sea-level rise. 3,500 economists agreed that the quickest and most cost-effective solution is a carbon fee and dividend. Action is more productive than hope. ~ Roberta Brezinski, Durham

Letter: Interior secretary’s ethical lapses call for comment from Collins
Portland Press Herald - Wednesday, May 8, 2019
The Senate voted to confirm David Bernhardt as the new Secretary of the Interior. Susan Collins supplied one of those yea votes. Bernhardt is a well known former coal/oil industry lobbyist. The list of companies that he must recuse himself from is so long that he has to carry a list of them. Prior to the confirmation vote, Angus King asked Bernhardt if Maine could be excluded from states that would be targeted for off-shore drilling. Bernhardt would not give an affirmative answer. Collins still voted for him. This week, the Interior Department’s inspector general has initiated an investigation of Bernhardt’s ethical conflicts. Collins owes her constituents an explanation for her vote for this biased and unethical individual. ~ Jessica Mahnke, Bath

Outdoors for All
Sierra Club - Tuesday, May 7, 2019
The increased popularity of incorporating the healing power of nature into health care, public health programs, architecture, and education has been inspired by a relatively new body of scientific evidence that associates improved wellness and lower mortality rates with access to green and biodiverse spaces. In the span of a decade, the number of studies indicating that time spent in natural surroundings–whether groomed urban parks or unruly wilderness landscapes–can improve people's well-being has increased from dozens to hundreds.

10th dead humpback whale this year washes ashore
Other - Tuesday, May 7, 2019
The 10th dead humpback whale in the region so far this year washed ashore Sunday night, the latest in a disturbing trend in recent years. Jamie McWilliams, education director of Cape Ann Whale Watch, said, “It’s devastating." The whale was first documented by researchers in 1984 and was seen regularly in the Gulf of Maine over the years. In 1970, all humpback whales were listed as endangered after commercial whaling drastically reduced their numbers. But North Atlantic humpback whales were removed from the endangered-species list in 2016.

Scientists: Biodiversity threat puts everyone at risk
Associated Press - Tuesday, May 7, 2019
A massive United Nations report this week warned that nature is in trouble, estimated 1 million species are threatened with extinction if nothing is done and said the worldwide deterioration of nature is everybody’s problem. “Nature is essential for human existence and good quality of life,” the report said. Food, energy, medicine, water, protection from storms and floods and slowing climate change are some of the 18 ways nature helps keep people alive, the report said. And it concluded 14 of those are on long-term declining trends.

Lawmakers hear debate that shows sharp divide over renewable-energy bill
Portland Press Herald - Tuesday, May 7, 2019
A bill that would mandate an increase in the amount of electricity coming from renewable sources to Maine consumers received mixed reviews Tuesday in a legislative committee, with business interests split on the cost and benefits of the mandate, and supporters calling it crucial to Gov. Janet Mills’ initiative to blunt the impacts of climate change. At issue is an energy policy called the Renewable Portfolio Standard, which requires the increased production of energy from renewable sources. Three-quarters of Maine’s net electricity generation came from renewable sources in 2017. Roughly 33% from hydro, 25% from biomass, and 20% from wind. The data overstate the contribution of wood-fired, biomass generators, many of which have closed or greatly reduced output.

Mills signs ‘Cast and Blast’ bill into law
Bangor Daily News - Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Spurred by the desire to spend one autumn “cast and blast” weekend at camp, lobbyist James Cote asked Sen. Russell Black to submit a bill that would move the beginning day of upland game season — including ruffed grouse — to the last Saturday in September. That way, Cote said, each year would have one weekend when his friends could adjourn to camp, spend a Saturday hunting and a Friday or Sunday fly fishing on waters that typically shut down Oct. 1. Gov. Janet Mills has signed that bill, LD 265, into law.

Permit for CMP transmission line appealed
Portland Press Herald - Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Nextera Energy Resources filed an appeal of the permit issued by the Maine Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday to Central Maine Power for its new transmission corridor. Nextera alleges the PUC erred in awarding the permit because it did not adequately consider alternatives to the 145-mile power corridor, and the PUC’s conclusion that the power line will provide benefits to Maine was not supported by substantial evidence. The permit, awarded April 11, is the first of several approvals CMP needs to build its $1 billion transmission corridor. The project is intended to bring electricity generated by hydro power in Quebec to markets in Massachusetts.

Energy Company Appeals CMP's Permit For Western Maine Transmission Line
Maine Public - Tuesday, May 7, 2019
A major energy company is appealing the Maine Public Utilities Commission’s permit for Central Maine Power Co.’s controversial proposal for a new transmission line through western Maine. Nextera Energy Resources says it is challenging the decision on several grounds. Among its objections, Nextera says the PUC should have required CMP to perform a full analysis of nontransmission alternatives to the project, did not consider other reasonable alternatives to the project and should have considered ways to mitigate detrimental environmental effects the project would create.

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