We highlight news stories and opinion pieces related to Maine’s land, air, water, and wildlife in our monthly News & Noteworthy.
November 2023
Down East magazine featured NRCM CEO Rebeccah Sanders in their “Favorite Maine Place” feature this month. Read the full feature here.
NRCM Sustainable Maine Director Sarah Nichols recently wrote a blog about the plastic industry’s false promises, and the Republican Journal ran the blog as a story on its website.
The importance of Maine’s outdoor recreation to our state’s economy can’t be stressed enough. A new report says that in 2022 alone, the outdoor recreation economy in Maine great 16.5%. It now accounts for $3.3 billion in economic activity.
NRCM and our partners released a statement in support of a new port to support Maine’s offshore wind industry.
It was announced last week that some tribes in Maine will receive federal funding through the America the Beautiful grants to help protect watersheds and wildlife. The Penobscot Nation will receive $5 million for habitat assessment and improved fish passage. The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians will receive $1.6 million for a river restoration project in the St. John watershed.
In the November 9, 2023, issue of the Portland Press Herald, the paper’s editorial board shares their view that the Katahdin region is no place for a mine. Read the full editorial here.
Some fantastic news this week: The Trust for Public Lands and the Penobscot Nation announced a plan to return to the Penobscot Nation almost 30,000 acres of forestland near Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument.
October 2023
The Maine Board of Environmental Protection voted to have staff at the DEP move ahead with the Clean Cars II and Advanced Clean Trucks rules proposed earlier this year. Read this Bangor Daily News article to hear more from NRCM Climate & Clean Energy Outreach Coordinator Josh Caldwell. Then watch this WMTW news video, which includes an interview with NRCM Climate & Clean Energy Director Jack Shapiro.
Thanks to everyone who joined us in Bangor on October 23 for our rally and the Land Use Planning Commission’s public hearing for the proposal by Wolfden Resources to create a zinc mine at Pickett Mountain in the Katahdin region. Here is some news coverage of the hearing, which showed overwhelming opposition to the mining proposal. Of the members of the public who testified, 50 opposed the mine and just 6 support the plan. Learn more and hear from NRCM CEO Rebeccah Sanders in this Maine Public piece.
ICYMI: Last week, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced that the wind energy site in the Gulf of Maine excludes Lobster Management Area 1, an important fishing area for the vast majority of Maine lobstermen and women. Hear from NRCM Climate & Clean Energy Director Jack Shapiro about this news in a recent Portland Press Herald story and this piece from News Center Maine.
The Maine Board of Environmental Protection is discussing a proposed set of strong clean car and truck standards that will protect Mainers’ health and reduce climate-changing pollution. Read more about why these new standards are right for Maine in this op-ed in the Bangor Daily News.
Read this op-ed by owners of two of Maine’s premiere traditional Maine sporting camps. Jen Brophy, owner of Red River Camps in Debouille Township and Igor Sikorsky, owner of Bradford Camps on Munsungan Lake, in opposition to the proposal by Wolfden Resources to build a zinc mine at Pickett Mountain, in the heart of the Katahdin region. The risks of a mine are too high for people whose livelihoods are based in Maine’s pristine natural resources and outdoor recreation.
Later this month, the Maine Board of Environmental Protection will meet to discuss the proposed Advanced Clean Cars II and Clean Trucks standards. This week, the Portland Press Herald editorial board weighed in with its support of the standards. Read the editorial here.
Did you know that last week was Maine’s very first Food Waste Awareness Week? And, did you know that, according to a News Center Maine story, “up to 35 percent of all locally produced food in Maine ends up in the trash, rather than on people’s plates”? Learn what you can do in your own home to reduce food waste.
And, there was some great news out of Franklin County recently. A dam at Walton’s Mill in Farmington was removed in order to allow endangered Atlantic salmon to pass by the former dam site on Temple Stream, part of the headwaters of the Sandy River.
