This is the fourth post in our series on the wildlife impacts of Central Maine Power’s proposed New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission line project. As we wrote in our introductory post, Maine Audubon feels strongly that NECEC and its mitigation plan offer unsatisfactory protections for Maine wildlife and is especially deficient in its […]
North Woods
Maine Audubon Comments on the Proposed NECEC Transmission Line
This week we’ve been posting a blog series on the potential impacts of the proposed New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission line. If approved, the project would carve a 150-foot corridor through the Maine North Woods between the Maine / Canada border and The Forks. Maine Audubon and others have been critical of NECEC […]
NECEC and Forest Fragmentation Part 3: The American Marten
We’re continuing our series on Central Maine Power’s proposed New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission line project, focusing on its impacts to Maine wildlife. Maine Audubon feels strongly that NECEC and its mitigation plan offer unsatisfactory protections for Maine wildlife and is especially deficient in its consideration of habitat fragmentation. We began with an […]
Statement on LUPC Adoption of New Development Rules in the North Woods
Maine Audubon is deeply disappointed by the Land Use Planning Commission’s (LUPC) vote on April 2 to adopt rules to open tens of thousands of acres of Maine’s North Woods to subdivisons and commercial development. There was very little discussion by the Commissioners before the vote, which is the most significant policy change in the […]
NECEC AND FOREST FRAGMENTATION PART 2: THE OVENBIRD
We’re continuing our series on Central Maine Power’s proposed New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) transmission line project focusing on the potential impacts to Maine wildlife. Maine Audubon feels strongly that NECEC and its mitigation plan offer unsatisfactory protections for Maine wildlife and is especially deficient in its consideration of habitat fragmentation. (Read Part I […]
New England Clean Energy Connect and the Impacts of Forest Fragmentation
New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) is a transmission line proposed to bring electricity from hydro facilities in Quebec to consumers in Massachusetts. In the proposed path of construction for the transmission line lies a 53-mile stretch of undeveloped Maine woods between the Canadian border and The Forks. Construction of NECEC would carve a 150-foot-wide […]
We Spoke Up Today to Protect the Maine Woods
Today, Maine Audubon stood with over 25 individuals and organizations before the Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC, Commission) in Brewer to express our deep concern about their proposed rules that would dramatically change how new development is located in Maine’s unorganized territories — better known as Maine’s North Woods. We heard from residents of Forest […]
Diverse, Resilient, Intact: The Unique Nature of Maine’s North Woods
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2018 issue of Habitat magazine. Look up at night�and you see a sky filled with stars and planets, many melting into the expansive Milky Way above. Look down at Maine from the sky, and you see a massive dark spot, one of very few remaining on the night […]
The State Is Proposing Major Changes to Management of the North Woods
Maine’s Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) is moving forward a proposal to rewrite the rules for where and how new development can occur in Maine’s unorganized territories. The LUPC makes planning and zoning decisions for those areas of the state without their own local government — some 10.4 million acres of the state — mostly […]