Visit http://www.maine.gov/legis/house/townlist.htm

The Facts

The “merger” bill would finalize the tentative merger of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Conservation that was passed last year. In the past year, it has become clear that strong separate departments can best meet the needs of all Mainers.

We oppose this bill and the proposed merger because:

1. The new merged Department would focus on economic development, which is a distinct change from the previous Department of Conservation’s purpose, which was to preserve, protect, and enhance the land resources of the state of Maine.

2. The merger would boost agricultural programs at the expense of conservation programs and shift the focus away from stewardship and land protection toward marketing and economic development.

3. Maine’s parks and lands and ecological reserves are not commodities to be exploited; they are our state’s natural treasures and part of our outdoor heritage. They also are the foundation of our tourist economy.

4. Agriculture can be boosted and supported in many ways that do not undermine conservation, none of which are discussed in this bill.

5. The Commissioner recently presented 45 “New Initiatives” that showcase why the Administration thinks merging these two departments is helpful. This list’s goals for our Division of Parks and Public Lands, includes NO initiatives to promote conservation or stewardship of Maine’s public lands. To us, this demonstrates that a merged Department will not value conservation or appreciate its importance to Maine’s economy.

• Learn more about the merger
• Stay up to date on all advocacy efforts

Thank you for your support!

For questions, please contact: 

Jennifer Burns Gray
Staff Attorney and Advocate
jgray@maineaudubon.org
(207) 781-6180 x224

How can I help?

Contact your local representative and senator and ask them to vote in support of the majority ought to pass as amended report on LD 730 An Act to Protect Maine Loons by Banning Lead Sinkers and Jigs. If you would like to share details, please refer to the fats below.

Call now!

• Senate: (800) 423-6900
• House: (800) 423-2900

Unsure of your local legislators? Look them up!

The Facts

The amended version of LD 730 will ban the use and sale of lead sinkers up to one ounce in weight and bare lead headed jigs up to two and a half inches in length. Passage of this bill will reduce loon mortality and improve the long-term sustainability of our adult loon population.

• Lead poisoning from lead jigs and sinkers is the leading cause of death of adult loons in Maine. It is responsible for almost one-third of the documented mortality over the past 25 years.
• Adult loons catch fish with lost or broken lead jigs and sinkers or they accidentally pick up lead objects while eating gravel from lake bottoms.
• Once ingested, lead objects quickly dissolve in loon gizzards, which elevates lead levels in blood and tissues and causes death in as little as two weeks.
• Lead-free alternatives are available.

1. Please attend a hearing at the Environment and Natural Resources Committee on Monday, April 29th at 9:00 a.m. in Room 216 of the Cross Office Building (directly behind the State House) to support a bill that would strengthen standards for mining in Maine.
   Contact Jenn Gray at jgray@maineaudubon.org or (207) 798-2900 if you can attend the hearing on Monday, April 29th beginning at 9:00 a.m., or if you have questions.
2. Contact members of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee to ask them to support LD 1302! (Please see contact information below)

The Facts – The mining industry has an extremely poor track record of polluting the environment and leaving taxpayers with the costs of clean up. In 2012, the Maine Legislature passed a bill that rolled back Maine’s mineral mining laws. Proponents of last year’s legislation are considering mining Bald Mountain in central Aroostook County. Should open pit mining occur in that location, the impacts could be dramatic – open-pit mining leaves large toxic acid ponds which could potentially drain through ground and surface waters into the Fish River and the Fish River Chain of Lakes, which provide some of the best brook trout fishing in the country.

Learn more on our Open Pit Mining page »

Why we need your help – LD 1302 amends last year’s law to protect water quality and Maine taxpayers from the risks of mining.  A huge turnout of concerned citizens at the State House last year helped improve the bill – we need your help!

Specifically, LD 1302 – An Act to Amend the Maine Metallic Mineral Mining Act to Protect Water Quality (sponsor Rep. Jeff McCabe) would:

• Protect Maine’s groundwater by requiring DEP to measure compliance with groundwater standards as close as possible to mining-related activities;
• Require an independent, third-party estimate of clean-up costs and ensure that mining companies place a sum equal to that cost in a secure trust;
• Make any mining permit contingent on a company proving that at least one mine has operated elsewhere in the U.S., in a similar climate to Maine’s, without polluting groundwater or surface water;
• Not allow any mines that would require wastewater treatment or other waste management activities in perpetuity (such as a tailing dams or liner maintenance). Specifically, LD 1302 would mandate that mining companies complete all clean-up, waste management and water treatment activities within 10 years of ceasing mining operations.

Maine Environment and Natural Resources Committee
Contact Information

House Phone Number: (800) 423-2900
Senate Phone Number: (800) 423-6900

• Cooper, Janice (D) – Representative, District 107
  RepJanice.Cooper@legislature.maine.gov
• Harlow, Denise (D) – Representative, District 116
  RepDenise.Harlow@legislature.maine.gov
• Chipman, Benjamin (Ind) – Representative, District 119
  Ben.Chipman@legislature.maine.gov
• McGowan, Paul (D) – Representative, District 149
  RepPaul.McGowan@legislature.maine.gov
• Saviello, Thomas (R) – Senator, District 18
  SenThomas.Saviello@legislature.maine.gov
• Reed, Roger (R) – Representative, District 023
  RepRoger.Reed@legislature.maine.gov
• Ayotte, Bernard (R) – Representative, District 003
  RepBernard.Ayotte@legislature.maine.gov
• Gratwick, Geoffrey (D) – Senator, District 32
  SenGeoff.Gratwick@legislature.maine.gov
• Campbell, Richard (R) – Representative, District 040
  RepDick.Campbell@legislature.maine.gov
• Welsh, Joan (D) – Representative, District 046
  RepJoan.Welsh@legislature.maine.gov
• Grant, Gay (D) – Representative, District 059
  RepGay.Grant@legislature.maine.gov
• Boyle, James (D) – Senator, District 06
  SenJames.Boyle@legislature.maine.gov
• Long, Ricky (R) – Representative, District 009
  RepRick.Long@legislature.maine.gov

Maine is home to 97% of the nation’s wild eastern brook trout lakes and ponds. Brook trout are important to Maine and the nation’s ecological and sporting heritage and are also a valuable recreational and economic state resource.

This population is at risk. The quality and abundance of the fishery has declined for a lot of reasons, but, the biggest threat to the resource is the introduction of competing fish species into the trout’s fragile ecosystem by the use of live bait for fishing.

Facts: In 2012, Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife adopted changes to its fishing regulations to ban the use of live fish as bait in nine northern Maine lakes where Brook trout live. We support these changes that are intended to protect important headwaters that feed watersheds containing many of the state’s wild brook trout populations.  LD 170 proposes rules changes which undo these important protections.

The Department’s rules will go into effect April 1, 2013 unless LD 170 passes.  LD 170 directs the Commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to reverse these protective measures.

How You Can Help

1. Attend the public hearing before the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee on March 26, 2013 at 1:00 pm in Room 206 of the Cross Building (next to the State House) and speak up for not allowing live fish as bait in these prime Brook trout waters.
2. Call or email members of the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee and ask them to oppose LD 170 – Resolve, To Allow the Use of Live Bait When Ice Fishing in Certain Waters of the State.

For more information visit our website where you can learn about all of our Legislative Advocacy priorities or contact jgray@maineaudubon.org

Water-bodies subject to the ban that would be repealed under LD 170 include:

• Attean Pond, Attean Township (Somerset County)
• Fish Pond (Little), Hobel Twp. (Somerset Co.)
• Twin Island Pond, Lowelltown Twp. (Franklin Co.)
• Mountain Catcher Pond, T06 R08 WELS (Penobscot Co.)
• Webster Lake, T06 R10 and T06 R11 WELS (Piscataquis Co.)
• Chase Lake, T09 R10 WELS (Piscataquis Co.)
• Millimagasset Lake, T7 R8 WELS (Penobscot Co.)
• Millinocket Lake and Little Millinocket Lake, T07 R9, T8 R9, T7 R10 WELS (Piscataquis Co.)
• Munsungan Lake (including Little), T08 R9, T8 R10, T9 R10 WELS (Piscataquis Co.)
• Wheelock Lake, St. John Plt. (Aroostook Co.)

What can I do to help?

• Attend the hearing on March 28 at 1:00 p.m. in room 206 of the Cross Office Building (next to the State House) in Augusta.. Call (207) 781-2330 x216 for more information.
• Call or email members of the Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife Committee to express your support for LD 730.

Watch our advocacy video:

Related:

• Loons and Lead advocacy information page
• Wildfire Episode 2 – Loons, Lead, and the Impact on Wildlife, Business, and Recreation

Stay up to date with all of our Legislative Advocacy:
Receive Action Alerts by Email »

Facts: Maine Audubon supports adoption of “An Act to Reopen the St. Croix River to River Herring”  – LD 72 which will help restore the native alewife population in the St. Croix River. This bill would reopen fish passage to alewives (also known as river herring) at two dams on the St. Croix.

• The St. Croix River should produce the largest run of alewives on the east coast, but Maine closed fishways at two dams on the river in 1995, which has resulted in a population decline from more than 2.6 million fish to less than a thousand within a few years.
• In 2008, the Legislature opened the fishway at the lower dam, but alewives can still only access about 2% of their native spawning habitat.
• Alewives are a critical food source for many valuable fish species including salmon, striped bass, bluefish, tuna, cod and haddock. Many mammals and birds also prey on alewives.
• Alewives are the preferred spring bait for Maine’s lobster industry.

Watch our advocacy video:

Related: 
Wildfire – The Importance of Alewives for Healthy Rivers and a Healthy Economy

If you have never attended a public hearing read our guide to Testifying at Public Hearings.

Stay up to date with all of our Legislative Advocacy:
Receive Action Alerts by Email »

Attend a public hearing or submit written comments

One of the biggest environmental rollbacks passed by the state legislature last session was a complete re-write of Maine’s mineral mining laws. Despite our best efforts to improve the bill in the legislature, the bill that passed was disappointing. Open-pit mining in Maine could result in arsenic, lead, and other toxic chemicals contaminating lakes, rivers, streams, and soils as it has done in other states. Most of the discussion of open-pit mining in Maine has focused on Bald Mountain, owned by J.D. Irving, in central Aroostook County. However, Maine has significant metallic mineral deposits that mining companies hope to extract, including in the Western Foothills.

Now, as directed by the law, the Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) is revising their zoning rules for potential mining sites in Maine. These important rules will set the criteria for what applicants will need to submit to LUPC and what  LUPC must consider in reviewing applications to rezone land for new mines.

We must ensure that these rules take into consideration potential impacts to water quality, soils, sensitive natural resources, wildlife and wildlife habitat, and both scenic and recreational resources.

What you can do:

1. Please consider attending one of the two public hearings LUPC is holding specifically to allow the public to weigh in on these important rules:
   • Tuesday, December 11, 6:00pm
     University of Maine at Presque Isle Campus Center
     Allagash Room
   • Friday, December 14, 2:00pm
     University of Maine at Farmington
     Olsen Student Center Building
2. Testify before the LUPC
3. Submit written comments to LUPC by December 28th

Written comments can be submitted via email to: Samantha.Horn-Olsen@maine.gov.

Important information

• Public Hearing Notice: LUPC is holding two public hearings to allow the public to weigh in on these important rules:
• Learn more about the concerns: LUPC Proposed Mining Rule Revisions & Talking Points from NRCM  [pdf]
• LUPC Public Comment Draft of Proposed Rules

The impacts on the Bald Mountain area could be enormous. Mining activities there would likely drain into the Fish River and the Fish River Chain of Lakes, which provide some of the best brook trout fishing in the country. Mines in the Western Foothills would likely drain into the Kennebec and Androscoggin Rivers, critical tourism destinations and economic drivers.

Thank you for your support!
Jenn

Jennifer Burns Gray
Staff Attorney and Advocate
(207) 781-6180 ext. 224
jgray@maineaudubon.org