2018 A Likely Scenario During a Future Winter i New England.   Examining a new report on Maine's power grid performance  from December 24, 2017 to January 8, 2018. 2017 OPINION:The story of a windmill. By Dale Landrith Sr. | Jun 29, 2017 2015 AUDIO September 22, 2015 selectboard discussion  .  Is Camden Energy Committee being revived? 22 min mp3 July 28, 2015. Appointing new energy committee 11min mp3 July 14, 2015 Wind supporters critique opposition 18min mp3 VIDEOJuly 14, 2015 *&*July 28, 2015 Camden Selectboard meetings where forming a new Energy Committee came up: WHO WE ARE ***MEETINGS & EVENTS Want to get involved? Write us! ** Attend an Energy Committee meeting. Reports *** Archive *** Ragged Mountain news Ragged Mountain on the Web *** LINKS *** PHOTOS EXISTING WIND ORDINANCES IN MAINE

Penobscot Bay Towns' Harbor Committees

Penobscot Bay town harbor committees

Saint George  Coastal Waters management board

So Thomaston Shellfish committee http://town.south-thomaston.me.us/committees.html

Owls Head harbor Committee 

Rockland Harbor Commission

Rockport Harbor Committeet 

Camden Harbor Dept 

Lincolnville,  harbormaster  * Harbor Committee

Northport Harbor Committee 

Belfast Harbor Advisory committee

SearsportHarbormaster Wayne Hamilton can be reached at Marine Channel 9 or 16 or by calling 207.548.2722

Searsport Shellfish committee 

Stockton Springs Harbor Committee 

Islesboro Harbor Committee

North Haven Harbormaster

Vinalhaven https://www.townofvinalhaven.org/harbor-committee

Castine  Harbor committee

Penobscot Harbor committee

Isle Au haut

Deer Isle Harbor Committee 

Stonington  

Owl hoot? Or...? Audio from 2/21/16 Owl Prowl in Rockport suggests attendees "missed" a quiet wild hooter.

Owl hoot?  Or what?    Audio recording from 2/21/16 Rockport owl prowl suggests 'jilted' attendees weren't listening closely enough.  Listen, and then ...You be the judge!

More than fifty owl enthusiasts led by two  staff of Merryspring Nature Center  walked through the muddy Rockport woods on Sunday evening. They  thought that they'd not heard a single wild owl hoot during the four listening stops of the sojourn.  

But listen below to an excerpt  of a recording from the first listening session. In between the 3rd & 4th call, it sounds like  an owl responding once in the distance, Was it?  The second audio features the "wild hoot" played at original speed and made louder and slowed down 

  

1. This 51 second recording starts with instructions to we listeners, then the owl call is played four times.(For brevity, I trimmed out most of the time listening between the instructions and when  the four owl calls began). Notice between the third and fourth call (at 42 seconds) you will hear the quet "real owl hoot" - at least it seems so to me.

2.   An 18 second recording of this "hoot" running at original speed and volume, then three increasingly higher volumes, then at its original, then slowed down to two different speeds and finally the original a last time.

What do you think?  It is two-syllabled as owl calls are.   Surely someone who knows their nightbirds will recognize that call.  If  someone would like the original unedited audio of the owl listening sessions, We'll make it available.

Virtually visit lobster homes in 3 Penobscot Bay harbors. Sunday March 6th Rockland

For Immediate release   2/19/16

Contact: Friends of Penobscot Bay  207-691-7485

Lobster-rich Penobscot Bay: Seeing is believing

ROCKLAND.  For more than a century, Penobscot Bay has been the salty heartland of the wild Maine lobster. On Sunday March 6th, from 2 to 4pm, join the Friends of Penobscot Bay at Stella Maris House in Rockland  as they inspect the lobster habitats of Rockland Harbor, Searsport Harbor and Rockport Harbor, using underwater videos they've made and acquired of the bayfloors of these places.

Since the 1840s Penobscot Bay has dominated New England's lobster fishery.   Come see lobsters hanging out beneath rocks and algae, sunken -into mud burrows, hiding hastily from an approaching video diver. Inspect the lobsters'   "prairie dog town"-style burrow communities

 

"West Penobscot Bay's lobster fishery alone brings in  around $130 million at the dock yearly", said Ron Huber executive director of Waterkeeper Alliance affiliate Friends of Penobscot Bay.   "There's an economic multiplier up to about 650 million dollars circulating within Penobscot bay  area communities.  Lobsters are our area's real renewable resource!"

The Friends of Penobscot Bay believe that keeping this fishery healthy requires keeping the watery homes of Penobscot Bay's lobsters - from the intertidal hideouts of juvenile lobsters to the bay's  sunken boulders and mudfloors.

"Seeing is believing" Friend's leader Huber said. "Come to Stella Maris House in Rockland  on  Sunday March 6th from 2-4pm and get to know the lobster habitats of Rockland Harbor, Searsport Harbor and Rockport Harbor" 

Stella Maris House is located at 148 Broadway, Rockland, adjacent to St Bernard's Catholic Church. Plenty of parking. Snacks will be served.

For more information, contact Friends of Penobscot Bay at  207-691-7485 or by email at coastwatch@gmail.com

 

Friends of Penobscot Bay: a Waterkeeper Alliance affiliate. Caring for Maine's biggest Bay

West Penobscot Bay: Substantial coastal forest losses since early1990s: report

"Substantial deforestation" in all West Penobscot Bay towns between 1992 and 2011.  

Summary According to a report prepared earlier  August 17, 2015 for Friends of  Penobscot Bay, western bay towns Stockton Springs, Searsport, Belfast, Camden, Rockport, Rockland and South Thomaston lost about 30 square miles of forests between 1992 and 2011.

Full slideshow  as PDF and as powerpoint *** Listen to 8/17/15 presentation on this report

Twelve square miles of those lost forests became impervious surfaces, e.g. buildings, roads, parking lots. The remainder has become either wetlands or grasslands.  
Surprisingly with this 85% increase in developed land, came an average decline of 2% in west Penobscot Bay town populations.                                          

===============================

The report "Tools for Assessing and Managing Human Impact on Maine’s Harbors" was prepared by Kevin Frech, in cooperation with Public Laboratory

Funding for the study was provided  by the Azavea Foundation, dedicated to improving data access and usage in natural resource and social applications 

  

===============================

 Forest cover changes, Stockton Springs to South Thomaston, 1992 - 2011

Stockton Springs & Searsport together lost 14%  of their forest cover: 5 and a half square miles. Population increase of 84 people since 1990.

White surfaces of map are unchanged More details here

=====================

Belfast  lost 4 square miles 15% of its forests. About 2 square miles became developed land.  While development went up 50%, the population only went up 4%.                      More details here

=================================

Increases in roads, buildings & parking lots from 1992 to 2011

Camden, Rockport Rockland Owls Head,  South Thomaston

DETAILS

Camden & Rockport lost 8%  of their forestland.  3 square miles become developed land. 100% increase in development Lost almost 3 sq miles to development.    

Population grew by 72, or 0.1 percent   

White surfaces of map are unchanged

More details here

===========================================

Rockland & SW Rockport lost 23% of their forest cover.  45% increase in developed land  Population  of the city dropped  8%, from 7,900 down to 7,200 between 1992 and 2011.

White surfaces of map are unchanged

More details here

===========================================

South Thomaston  lost 40% of its forests. 6 sq miles. 80% increase in develop 1994-2011.  An increase of 3 square miles of wetlands and 1 1/2 sq miles of developed land. 16% drop in  population; a decline of 500 people. 

 More details

===================================

The report was prepared by Kevin Frech, Azavea Intern, and recent Temple University graduate.

Second Battle of Penobscot Bay: Fierce fighting along the western bay corridor.

Struggle for the bay.

In the West: Wins, stalemates, losses.

Searsport, Belfast Rockport and Rockland are most in contention by Big Energy and Big Sprawl, or are in imminent risk of same. Let's go down the list 

Searsport.

WIN *GAC Chemical has vowed to, by the close of this year, remove acid wastes from their Stockton Harbor shore and create a neutralizing lime trench between the tainted slope and the intertidal beach below. This first serious response to our request - repeated on and off since 1998 - may markedly reduce the impact of Maine's worst ocean acidification source. In exchange GAC gains a "pollution pardon" for those particular deposits next to the abandoned acid plant. We'll give them a pat on the head, too.

LOSS * The Mack Point Wood is reeling from fragmentation caused when natural coastal forest and soils along its southwestern reach was replaced with acres of tarp and cable clad salt piles taller than the trees they replaced. by an enterprising landowner who deforested more than 15 acres.

LOSS * A shredded automobile export operation named Grimmel has gotten an annual town permit to operate. This having followed fast trackage by Maine DEP and DMR or their respective sign-offs on the project. There is now only the grim wait.

*IN PLAY State officials running the Searsport megadredge application have fast tracked it by rejecting an effort to have the Maine Board of Environmental Protection assume jurisdiction. The dreaded Patty Aho, via her subchief Suzanne "the Butcher" Miller of the eastern Maine DEP office, is certain to approve, and Islesboro will have to once again massively increase its cash burn rate to equip its Warriors of the Law with the litigatory weapons needed to combat both the LePage administration AND the Obama Administration.

Rockland

* Big Gas. IN PLAY The Carbonistan initiative from Boston to gas Rockland has been challenged but only slowed; a northern gas front is equally likely to open up the bay coast by way of Belfast. The Rockland site is a stone's throw from the city schools and athletic fields. It is even closer to the Little League Field.

A public information on the gas plant /pipeline proposal meeting was held. The gasser wannabees were not there, The public was, or course FORBIDDEN TO SPEAK, but could submit questions on little pieces of paper that had to pass through at least two censors before being aired. Mysteriously, few questions critical of the proposal made it to the moderator's microphone. Thus passeth democracy, one more razor cut to the body politic.

Belfast IN PLAY. Will Belfast save the bay by fending off a predicted northern gas invasion? (See rockland, below) Or will the Sprawl Army gas Belfast, then press south along the western Bay shore, linking up with a north expanding pipeline from Rockland? A pincer movement, spreading suburbanization and urbanization, and all their ecological disruptions in its wake? Belfast has a soul. Will it rise to the occasion. Time will tell.

Rockport

* WIN South coast forests of Clam Cove saved from subdivision by land sale to unidentified 1%ers for wooded family compound.

IN PLAY *Ecomapping of western Rockport Harbor from its coastal forests to its rocky submerged cliffs moves forward on two fronts:

(1) A snapshot comparison of the present with Rockport as documented in Beedy Parker's seminal 1984 book "A natural history of the Camden and Rockport area,covering weather patterns, geological composition of the land and the varieties of plant and animal life found here."

(2) IN PLAY A continuing log of marine and tidal and shallow subtidal observations of selected areas of the harbor using standard estuary documentation gear. Seasonally Identify the species mix of the present Rockport Harbor from several points.

Around the Bay. IN PLAY

No surer way to ruin the bay's rich ecosystem of microflora and microfauna in their shallow water haunts than by replacing the natural forests, swamps and meadows above them with asphalt and cement pavements, with roofs and chemlawns, transforming that tea into a poisonous iridescent technobrew called "stormwater".

Because that sort of gutting of the bay's coastal forests tends to take place in bites, it is important to preemptively document the existing environmental and ecological conditions of today's shoal ecosystems rimming the bay's coasts, from just below the tide to shoals edge edge of the shoal. This prior to their being impacted by tainted stormwater runoff.

PENOBSCOT BAY NEEDS YOU!   if you would like to help video document our bay's shallow water habitats call Ron at the Friends of Penobscot Bay at 207-593-2744 or email coastwtch@gmail.com

Or if you'd otherwise like to help take care of Maine's biggest bay and the wild atlantis below its surface! A bay is a terrible thing to waste.

FOPB videos of Penobscot Bay. Aerial, boatcam and scuba

Enjoy selections from the many hours of videos that we've accumulated over the last twenty years.

ROCKLAND
Rockland Harbor
DMR video made for an aquaculture proposal next to the rockland breakwater that never materialized

BELFAST
shoreline overflight. south side of Passagassawakeag River to Little River, May 1, 2013

ROCKPORT
Rockport Harbor 6 minutes
Rockport Harbor's Porterfield Ledge 4min
Visit to Rockland Harbor's muddy, lobsterburrow-filled  harbor  16min

SEARSPORT
GAC Overflight 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s-MPd2bFN8

Sears Island

Scuba video dive off Sears Island  just out from the stone jetty on Sears Island - aka the Ghostport    Five minute extract of a 19 minute recording.  It's muddy and rich in lobster and crab burrows, hydroids  and more.

Full length 19minute video files of the dive, and a copy of  the 5 minute short version  on youtube go to   http://penbay.org/searsisland/si_vid and an excerpt of that video taken by a scuba-diving friend 

They've big ,  best perhaps to right click and "save as " then  play it on  your desktop

Penobscot Bay Data maps, aerials, charts and more

ELMR data (Estuarine Living Marine Resources)
https://penbay.org/gom/elmr_data_1994_bluehillbay_penbay_muscongus.jpg
https://penbay.org/gom/noaa_elmr_distr_abund_1994_northatlantic.pdf

Virtually fly  the Gulf of Maine  https://penbay.org/gom/fly_gom.mpg

ROCKPORT

Harbor maps
https://penbay.org/rockport/rockport_rockland_hbr_watersheds.jpg
https://penbay.org/rockport/rockport_harbor_chart_lg.jpg
https://penbay.org/rockport/Rockport_hbr_bathy_chart_sm_vert.jpg
https://penbay.org/rockport/rockporthbr_quartzcliff_topo.jpg
http://penbay.org/rockport/rockport_hbr_quartz_cliffs_1sm_071714.jpg

Underwater photos/video
https://penbay.org/rockport/rockport_hbr_101912_biofoulingpictures/

Sewer expansion
https://penbay.org/rockport/rockport_sewer_expansion2.jpg
http://penbay.org/rockport/rockport_sewer_expansion.jpg
http://penbay.org/rockport/rockport_sprawl_map_capt.jpg
http://penbay.org/rockport/rockporthbr_quartzcliff_topo.jpg

Aerial
GAC Chemical aerial photo 5.1.13 Waste plumes at low tide
GAC Aerial looking southeast, includes Sears island Islesboro more
GAC aerial abandoned sulfuric acid plant, sand bar and causeway 2013

Historic
1940 Kidder Pt industrial waterfront, horizontal     1940 waterfront vertical

Licensed dischargers into Penobscot Bay. Licenses and enforcement histories

Licensed dischargers into Penobscot Bay & enforcement histories Saint George (Atlantic Ocean	East Wind Incorporated (PDF) (2 pp, 2MB)	ME0036773	07/18/2011
Saint George (Long Cove)	Sea Hag Seafood, Inc. (PDF) (34 pp, 2.2MB) Enforcement	ME0037346	10/03/2012

St. George (Long Cove)

Great Eastern Mussel Farms, Inc.  Now: Sea Hag (PDF)(42 pp, 2.1MB) Enforcement

ME0023124

11/08/2007

Owls Head (Atlantic Ocean)	Crescent Beach Association (PDF) (40 pp, 2.8MB) Enforcement	ME0036781	11/30/2010
Owls Head (Atlantic Ocean)	Crescent Beach Association (PDF) (30 pp, 1.3MB)	ME0036781	11/29/2005

Rockland (Atlantic Ocean)	Rockland POTW, City of (PDF) (25 pp, 216K)  Enforcement	ME0100595	11/21/2009
Rockland (Atlantic Ocean)	Rockland POTW, City of (PDF) (84 pp, 229K)	ME0100595	12/21/2007
Rockland (Rockland Harbor)	FMC Biopolymer (PDF) (40 pp, 2.7MB) Enforcement	ME0000400	12/04/2012
Rockland (Rockland Harbor)	FMC Biopolymer (PDF) (31 pp, 1.6MB)	ME0000400	10/09/2007
Rockland (Rockland Harbor)	Rockland POTW, City of (PDF) (13 pp, 102K) Enforcement	ME0100595	01/31/2008
Rockland (Rockland Harbor)	Rockland, City of; Waste Snow Dump (PDF) (29 pp, 2MB)	ME0036323	04/12/2012
Rockland (Rockland Harbor)	Rockland, City of; Waste Snow Dump (PDF) (15 pp, 817K)	ME0036323	12/28/2006
Rockland (Rockland Pier)	Dragon Products Company, LLC (PDF)(16 pp, 45K) Enforcement	ME0036994	11/25/2008
Rockport (Rockport Harbor)	Rockport Waste snowdump (PDF) (16 pp, 649K) Enforcement	ME0036307	10/03/2006

Camden (Camden Harbor Watershed)	Camden, Town of (PDF) (32 pp, 3MB)  Enforcement	ME0100137	07/18/2003
Camden (Camden Harbor)	Camden Waste Snow Dump, Town of (PDF) (29 pp, 1.2MB) Enforcement	ME0102725	08/05/2010
Camden (Megunticook River)	Camden Waste Snow Dump, Town of (PDF) (13 pp, 643K)	ME0102725	10/28/2005

Vinalhaven (Atlantic Ocean)	Vinalhaven POTW, Town of (PDF) (61 pp, 4.1MB) Enforcement	ME0102491	11/02/2012
Vinalhaven (Atlantic Ocean)	Vinalhaven POTW, Town of (PDF) (49 pp, 2.1MB)	ME0102491	11/1

North Haven (Fresh Pond)	North Haven DWTP, Town of (PDF) (34 pp, 1.1MB) Enforcement	ME0102482	08/02/2012
North Haven (Fresh Pond)	North Haven DWTP, Town of (PDF) (22 pp, 1.1MB)

Islesboro (East Penobscot Bay)	Islesboro, Town of (PDF) (11 pp, 1.8MB)	ME0100269	01/20/2012
Islesboro (East Penobscot Bay)	Islesboro, Town of (PDF) (25 pp, 1.3MB)	ME0100269	11/21/2005 Enforcement

Lncolnville Beach
Lincolnville Beach Sanitary Facility  Enforcement history

Northport Village Corp  Enforcement info

Northport

Atlantic Blanket Company (PDF) (33 pp, 2.3MB) Enforcement info

MEU508257

12/02/2010

Belfast	Moore’s Septic, Inc. (PDF) (40 pp, 3.2MB)  Enforcement info	MEU508259	10/03/2012
Belfast (Atlantic Ocean, Belfast Harbor)	Belfast POTW, City of (PDF) (81 pp, 3.2MB) Enforcement info	ME0101532	02/18/2011
Belfast (Belfast Harbor)	Belfast POTW, City of (PDF) (5 pp, 24K)	ME0101532	02/12/2008
Belfast (Belfast Harbor)	Belfast POTW, City of (PDF) (64 pp, 3MB)	ME0101532	05/23/2006
Belfast (Passagassawakeag River)	Penobscot McCrum, LLC (PDF) (72 pp, 4.7MB)	ME0023043	12/04/2012
Belfast (Passagassawakeag River)	Penobscot Mccrum, LLC (PDF) (64 pp, 2.5MB) Enforcement info	ME0023043	10/17/2007

Searsport (Atlantic Ocean/Stockton Harbor)	General Alum New England Corporation Chemical Manufacturing Facility 2006 (PDF) (42 pp, 3MB) Enforcement info TRI Discharges	ME0001830	03/03/2011
Searsport (Long Cove, Penobscot Bay)	Irving Oil Terminals, Inc. (PDF) (75 pp, 2.3MB) Enforcement info	ME0002461	04/09/2010
Searsport (Penobscot Bay)	Searsport, Town of (PDF) (79 pp, 1.4MB) Enforcement info	ME0101966	11/12/2008
Searsport (Searsport Harbor)	Irving Oil Terminals, Inc. (PDF) (70 pp, 2.2MB) Enforcement info  TRI Info	ME0021181	04/09/2010
Searsport (Searsport Tidewaters)	Sprague Energy Corporation (PDF) (73 pp, 14.3MB) Enforcement info	ME0002208	09/14/2009
Searsport (Searsport)	Sprague Energy Corporation (PDF) (27 pp, 1.3MB) TRI Info	ME0002208	12/15/2006

Winterport (Penobscot River)

Winterport Water District (PDF) (61 pp, 3.6MB) Enforcement  info

ME0100

Hampden (Penobscot River)	Coldbrook Energy, Inc. (PDF) (50 pp, 2.2MB) Enforcement info	ME0002267	12/20/2011
Hampden (Penobscot River)	Coldbrook Energy, Inc. (PDF) (31 pp, 1.4MB)	ME0002267	11/06/2006
Hampden (Souadabscook Stream)	Hampden CSO, Town of (PDF) (34 pp, 2.1MB) Enforcement info	ME0102512	02/04/2013
Hampden (Souadabscook Stream)	Hampden CSO, Town of (PDF) (52 pp, 1.7MB)	ME0102512	01/07/2008

Bangor (Penobscot River)	Webber Oil Company Bulk Fuel Storage Facility (PDF) (43 pp, 2.2MB)	ME0022225	05/19/2010
Bangor (Penobscot River)	Webber Oil Company (PDF) (28 pp, 1.5MB) Enforcement info	ME0022225	04/25/2006
Bangor (Penobscot River, Kenduskeag Stream )	Bangor POTW (PDF) (135 pp, 4.4MB) Enforcement info	ME0100781	05/26/2011

Bucksport	Bucksport, Town of (PDF) (65 pp, 4.1MB) Enforcement info	ME0100111	04/10/2012
Bucksport	Verso Bucksport LLC (PDF) (23 pp, 1.4MB)  Enforcement Information	ME0002160	06/07/2012
Bucksport	Verso Bucksport LLC (PDF) (22 pp, 1.8MB)	ME0002160	09/02/2010
Bucksport (Penobscot River)	Verso Bucksport LLC (PDF) (65 pp, 3.3MB)	ME0002160	01/07/2010
Bucksport (Penobscot River)	Webber Tanks, Inc. Bulk Fuel Storage Facility (PDF) (68 pp, 16.1MB)	ME0001457	10/15/2010
Bucksport (Penobscot River)	Webber Tanks, Inc. Bulk Fuel Storage Facility (PDF) (28 pp, 1.3MB)	ME0001457	04/25/2006

Orrington (Penobscot River)

Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. (PDF)(67 pp, 2.6MB)  Enforcement info

ME0023230

08/26/2009

Brewer (Penobscot River)	Brewer POTW (PDF) (111 pp, 2.7MB)	ME0100072	05/19/2011
Brewer (Penobscot River)	Brewer POTW (PDF) (34 pp, 933K) | Fact Sheet (PDF) (16 pp, 297K)	ME0100072	04/25/2003
Brewer (Penobscot River)	CES Inc. (PDF) (16 pp, 742K)	ME0102695	11/04/2005

Brewer POTW Enforcement

Orland	G.M. Allen & Son, Inc. Surface Wastewater Disposal System (PDF) (42 pp, 2.1MB)	MEU507791	12/22/2009
Orland	Letts Relax, Inc. (PDF) (35 pp, 1.55MB)	MEU507874	08/13/2007
Orland (Alamoosook Lake)	Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery (PDF) (8 pp, 544K)	ME0002437	02/04/2013
Orland (Alamoosook Lake)	Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery (PDF) (23 pp, 1.9MB)	ME0002437	05/16/2011
Orland (Alamoosook Lake)	Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery (PDF) (73 pp, 2.9MB)	ME0002437	02/02/2010

Penobscot (Penobscot River)

School Union 93 (PDF) (21 pp, 71K)

ME0101974

08/28/2008

Penobscot Nursing Home 

Castine	Castine POTW, Town of (PDF) (15 pp, 55K)	ME0101192	03/12/2008
Castine (Castine Harbor)	Castine POTW, Town of (PDF) (77 pp, 2.3MB)	ME0101192	12/29/2009

Castine enforcement reports











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