Gov. Paul LePage wants to harvest more timber on state-owned land to pay for a home heating assistance program, but he has angered others by linking the issue to the Land for Maine’s Future program. By Kevin Miller, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story AUGUSTA — Attorney General Janet Mills said a LePage administration Read More
public lands
Maine People Tell Governor: You’re Wrong!
By George Smith Bangor Daily News column It is time for the Governor to realize he isn’t going to get his wish of diverting funding away from Maine’s public lands, and do the right thing: release those Land for Maine’s Future Bonds. Maine people strongly agree on this, and an opinion issued yesterday by Janet Read More
NRCM to Present Awards to Portland, Phippsburg, Liberty, Bethel Conservation Leaders
NRCM News Release Augusta, ME – Maine’s leading nonprofit membership organization working to protect Maine’s land, air, water, and wildlife, has named its 2015 Conservation Leadership Award winners. The Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) presents the awards each year to individuals or groups that have made an extraordinary contribution to the protection of Maine’s Read More
Public Lands About Much More Than Cutting Trees
By Jenn Burns Gray, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed Over the past few months, the revenue generated from the timber harvest on Maine’s public lands has been in the spotlight. The Bangor Daily News published an editorial Sept. 25 that highlights the numerous problems with Gov. Paul LePage’s plan to increase timber Read More
“I Love Our Maine Lands” Photo Contest
Now through Monday, October 26, we invite you to explore and photograph your favorite Public Reserved Lands—and to enter your photos in our “I Love Our Maine Lands” photo contest.
Heavier Logging of Maine Public Lands Focus of New Commission
by Christine Parrish Free Press news story A new commission has just been formed by the state legislature to study the impacts of a shift away from a conservation forestry focus on Maine Public Lands to the commercial timber approach it embraced in 2013 — and the possible uses of those new timber dollars. The Read More
Maine Can’t Cut More Trees from Its Public Forests on a Whim
By The BDN Editorial Board Bangor Daily News editorial As lawmakers departed Augusta last month, they left a debate unsettled about how much wood to cut from Maine’s public forests, how to use the revenue from those logging operations, and what will become of $11.5 million in voter-approved, land-protection bonds. In the coming weeks, a Read More
LePage Violating State Responsibility with Public Reserved Lands Harvest Plan
By Catherine B. Johnson, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed Gov. Paul LePage threatens to increase logging on Maine’s Public Reserved Lands beyond sustainable levels and divert the revenues to unrelated purposes. But his plans run contrary to the origins, unique characteristics and purpose of these Lands. Maine has about 600,000 acres of Read More
Saving Canada’s Boreal Forest
by Scott Weidensaul and Jeffrey V. Wells New York Times op-ed STRETCHING from interior Alaska across Canada to Newfoundland, and sandwiched between the prairies and the Arctic, North America’s boreal forest is a mind-boggling 1.5 billion acres in size — bigger even than the vast rain forests of the Brazilian Amazon or the Congo. And Read More