Citing Maine’s ‘home rule authority’ to protect public health, the small city took on Big Oil, which lined up behind a company challenging its tar sands ban. By Sabrina Shankman Inside Climate News news story A federal judge has ruled that the coastal city of South Portland, Maine, did not violate the U.S. Constitution when Read More
Clean Water
Clean, healthy waterways are vital to our day-to-day lives. They help ensure safe drinking water, suitable habitat for fish and other wildlife, and recreational opportunities that make Maine a special place to live, work, and visit. NRCM is working hard to protect and restore Maine’s lakes, rivers, and streams, now and for generations to come.
Water for Wildlife and Your Dream Landscape
August—oh how I love this month in Maine! Fewer bug bites, warm days, and cool nights for perfect sleeping weather. Drifting off to dreamland with the peaceful sound of cricket song and a cool evening breeze through open windows just can’t be beat. It’s been so unbearably hot. Cooler evening temperatures can’t come soon enough, right? Read More
Food Businesses Trending Away from Single-use Plastic Items
by Laurie Schreiber Mainebiz news story Increasing numbers of Maine food businesses and lodgings are putting themselves in the forefront of national and international trends to switch out from petroleum-based items like straws, to-go containers and disposable cups and plates, to eco-friendly compostable versions. The Migis Hotel Group switched from plastic drinking straws to paper Read More
Plastic Bag Bans Signal Imminent Shift Away from Convenience Plastics
People everywhere are talking about plastic pollution more than ever. Researchers all over the world are studying the unnerving prevalence of plastic in the environment and documenting its devastating impacts on our ecosystems—and their findings are startling. You may have heard the terrifying estimate that plastic will outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050; or Read More
Nurturing Future Ambassadors for the Earth: NRCM Middle School Grants
Early this year, NRCM accepted applications from Maine middle school educators across the state interested in incorporating more science learning projects into their classrooms. The goal of these projects is to engage students in the nature of Maine and provide them with opportunities to learn more by interacting with their local environment. NRCM chose eight Read More
Scott Pruitt Resigns as EPA Administrator; NRCM Urges Senators Collins, King to Support a Clean Start for EPA
Statement of the Natural Resources Council of Maine “It is good that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned today. From day one, Pruitt was unfit to serve as EPA administrator, and has worked to harm to Maine’s environment by rolling back life-saving protections for our air and water and cozying up to industry lobbyists Read More
Findings from the Alford Lake Survey by Hope Elementary Students
In May, the Hope Elementary School 7th graders conducted the fieldwork portion for their project funded by the Natural Resources Council of Maine. The students were extremely excited to finally get out into the field to survey Alford Lake for their investigation into aquatic invasive species. On this day we had special assistance from several parent Read More
Lincolnville Students Prevent Pollution and Design Watershed Map
Lincolnville Central School seventh grade students have been studying our local watershed all year. We aimed to answer three questions: What is a watershed? How is a watershed important to our community? What animals do we think live in this area? We went outside and recorded our observations during art class and used them to Read More
Restoration of Alewives in Maine Rivers is No Fish Tale
Some animal migrations are large and obvious. I’ve seen many films of giant wildebeest herds moving across the plains in Africa numbering in the hundreds of thousands. I’ve been to South Dakota to hunt the spring migration of snow geese on their way to arctic breeding areas. I stayed in the small city of Aberdeen, Read More