Uncontrolled deer population + ANP record visits = hotbed for tick-borne diseases on MDI

Other news: Nordic CEO's departure prompts speculation about fish farm's future

BAR HARBOR - Is it time to reconsider a deer hunt?

MDI became Maine’s most concentrated place for Lyme (Borrelia burgdorferi) and other tick-borne diseases last year when Acadia National Park reported record visits, according to data from the University of Maine’s tick lab.

The map above highlighted the problem, with red indicating more than 200 persons out of 100,000 with Lyme disease.

At the QSJ’s request, University of Maine’s tick lab compiled the number of ticks it examined from MDI since 2019, when the lab opened. It showed there were 112 confirmed Lyme-carrying ticks in 2021. All of Hancock County had 231 compared with only 208 in Cumberland County, which has almost six times the population.

The lab’s data is a leading indicator. It includes only those who bothered to pack a tick in a plastic bag and send it to the lab in Orono for forensic evaluation. The total population of Lyme infestation is much larger.

Maine’s deer herd is estimated to be around 300,000 animals. Scientists say that the greater the deer population, the greater the presence of tick-borne diseases. According to the CDC, Maine ranks fourth highest in the nation for Lyme disease. Researchers from the Maine Medical Center Research Institute say that controlling the state’s deer population mitigates the spread of Lyme disease.

So last year the state opened the spigot and gave Maine hunters a record 153,910 any-deer permits, in an effort to trim the whitetail population. The result was the largest haul - 39,000 deer - since when Lyndon B. Johnson was President. 

But MDI did not benefit from the bountiful harvesting of deer. The island has had a ban on deer hunting since the the early 1930s.

Hancock County led the state in positive Lyme cases in 2021

In 2014, Bar Harbor narrowly defeated a plan for selective harvesting of deer. By 1,371 to 1,175, residents voted against a wintertime deer hunt outside of downtown at a fixed location, along with the use of an attractant.

The purpose of the hunt was to reduce car accidents, garden damage and Lyme disease exposure, according to those who wrote the plan.

The management plan was the creation of the deer herd control task force, a committee of citizens and scientists. The warrant committee had voted 6 to 5 to recommend defeat. Town councilors had narrowly voiced their support, by a vote of 4-3.

That same year the College of the Atlantic released a comprehensive history of deer management on the island. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u3kh6xABu_46r0IeS8meb6qTC5mGvGpU/view?usp=sharing

In 2012, before Lyme reached its current apex, MDI town managers already were worried about the deer population.

They proposed an island wide survey of residents on the question of allowing limited hunting.

At the time, Southwest Harbor selectman Ralph Dunbar said the best way to keep deer from invading populated areas is not to kill them, but for Acadia National Park to practice better forest management, according to the Islander.

“I’ve talked to several people about this, hunters and non-hunters,” Mr. Dunbar said. “The general consensus across the board was, ‘Do not do it.’ Their feeling was that the deer hunt would not work and would be a very bad idea.”

The park has a decidedly hands-off attitude on deer management. It does not collect data on the deer population.

“We don’t have any current research since 1990s,” park public affairs specialist Christie Anastasia told the Islander in 2019. The reason studies haven’t been a priority, she said, is that park staff “haven’t seen signs of damage due to deer browse. We know our forests are healthy.” Lyme disease was in its infancy around that time in Maine.

Acadia National Park had no such misgivings in 1960, when the the park began an eight-year effort to reduce the deer herd by live trapping and shooting, “to bring the starving herd into proper balance with nature,” according to the Bar Harbor Times in November 1965.

Live trapping was difficult and costly; shooting was found to be more effective. The work was done by park rangers in the winter, when the park was used less by the public.

“When in the field, the rangers attempt to pick out the deer that look like they’re starving. The healthy ones are left alone,” the newspaper reported in 1965. “They work Monday through Friday during November and January, skipping December, which isn’t a good month to find deer.” Rangers posted signs on all trails and roads in the park to warn people when they were shooting.

“The decision to reduce the herd was far from being a popular one. People do not like to see ‘their’ deer killed,” the Bar Harbor Times acknowledged toward the end of the culling, in 1967. “And National Park personnel committed to the idea of conservation and protection of wildlife suddenly found themselves cast as hardened villains sighting down rifle barrels at the defenseless creatures. But the job had to be done.”

In the end, 900 deer were removed from the park between 1960 and 1968, as reported by Supervisory Park Ranger Roy Stamey.

The lowest recorded population of deer on MDI was in 1968 immediately after the culling. A 1976 annual wildlife report by Stamey estimated the population at around 725.

A long time resident (multi-generational Mainer) of Southwest Harbor told me his family subsisted on sardines and deer meat even though deer hunting was illegal.

They were given a free pass - a wink and a nod - by various authorities in the Sixties when indeed deer meat was a staple on many island dinner tables.

My fellow Islander scoffed at the park rangers’ culling of the herd and said that if the authorities had just allowed locals to hunt for deer, it would have produced a similar outcome and people would had been fed. Instead the dead deer were burned at Hall Quarry, he said.

Maine tick lab’s Griffin Dill observed, “The 2022 numbers are low as we are obviously only halfway through the year and the fall is a peak season for deer tick activity.”

FOOTNOTE: Here are instructions on how to submit a tick for testing which costs $15. https://ticktesting.umaine.edu/submissioninstructions.php

Nordic Aquafarm’s leadership change prompts speculation, hope among activists

BELFAST - Are investors cooling to the intensive capital needs of industrial fish farms?

Undercurrent News broke the story a week ago that CEO Erik Heim and his wife left Nordic Aquafarms, the recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) company seeking to build a land-based salmon farm here.

Neither Heim nor Bernt-Olav Rottingsnes, the CEO of NAF’s Norway operations, gave any explanation for Heim and Naess parting company with the U.S. operation. CFO Brenda Chandler was named CEO of the US operations.

“With banks and aquaculture investors fleeing for the exits, and Nordic hemorrhaging money in Belfast, I have some advice for Ms. Chandler: get paid in advance and get it in cash,” wrote Lawrence Reichard in the Penobscot Bay Pilot. Reichard has been covering the story longer than any other journalist.

Other opponents to Nordic Aquafarm were more circumspect.

Sid Block, president of Friends of Harriet L. Hartley Conservation Area, which is suing to stop the project, said, “I am not at all reassured by the departure of Eric Heim and Maryanne Naess from Nordic Aquafarms and their plans to build a huge land-based fish production facility that would be an environmental and economic disaster for midcoast Maine.

“I will only be reassured when this foreign investment firm ceases all its activities in Maine. Their proposed fish factory would only lead to the industrialization and pollution of Belfast Bay. Our State must pass laws that will protect our environmental and economic resources from such ill-considered endeavors.” 

“In 2018, emails obtained by me under the Maine Freedom of Access Act, then Belfast City Manager Joe Slocum told Heim Belfast permitting would be a cakewalk for Nordic, with only your usual cranks in opposition,” Reichard wrote.

“Slocum was wrong, and now Nordic is almost four years behind schedule, with no particular end in sight.”

The surprise leadership change came after Nordic received some good news in June, when regulators approved a $63.6 million Central Maine Power transmission line upgrade in the Midcoast despite opposition from hundreds of people who said it is being undertaken in part to meet the future energy needs of the salmon farm.

The Public Utilities Commission disputed residents’ concerns about the planned Nordic Aquafarms and rejected an alternate proposal that the area’s growing energy needs could instead be met by solar farms and other distributed energy resources in the region.

Nordic Aquafarm plans to build a $500 million salmon farm on 55 acres beside Little River in Belfast and has received all the needed regulatory approval including a U.S. Army Corp of Engineers permit.

“In dollar terms it would be the biggest industrial infrastructure in Maine – and physically bigger than Fenway and Gillette Stadium combined,” Reichard wrote in Counterpunch. https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/07/07/the-incredible-vanishing-mr-heim/

Two lawsuits stand in the way, one appealing the permitting and the other challenging Nordic’s claim it has the right to lay pipes on intertidal land.

There are four industrial fin fish farms proposed for the 75-mile of coastline (as the crow flies) between Belfast and Jonesport. Yet, no one in state government has been looking at the holistic impact of all four on such a tight area. Each project had its own permitting process.

Whole Oceans, the salmon farm in Bucksport, has all the permits it needs to begin construction but so far has only done some site prep work. Kingfish, which wants to raise yellow tail in Jonesport, needs permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Jonesport planning board. American Aquafarms is appealing the rejection of its permit application for 120 acres of salmon farming in Frenchman Bay.

Seafood Source and other industry publications have reported on growing hesitation of investors because the farms require huge energy needs and capital, and the potential for pollution is considerable.

“Farming finfish on an industrial scale is like farming livestock on land on an industrial scale,” said economist Rosamond L. Naylor, who directs the Center on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University. “There are ways to minimize risks, but they are costly, and not everyone is taking the steps they should be taking.”

“The question of whether industrial aquaculture will enrich Maine’s economy without damaging its fragile ecosystems haunts scientists, politicians and residents,” Scientific American wrote.

“The Gulf of Maine is the least alkaline body of water on the Atlantic coast between Mexico and Canada, and its delicate chemistry is particularly vulnerable to disruptions both natural and human caused. Whatever their outcomes, Maine’s experiments will set an important precedent for seafood production around the globe.”

Heim wrote on his Linked-In page:

”It has been eight years since I founded the beginning of Nordic Aquafarms in our living room in Norway – a company to become one of the most profiled RAS companies in the world.

”I am confident that we are only in early beginnings as far as the potential for aquaculture in the US. But there are also challenges to address and much work left to make that a reality. Therefore, my commitment to furthering food security and industry enablement in the US will continue.”

MRC’s lack of transparency gnaws at Mount Desert select members

NORTHEAST HARBOR - Select board members Geoff Wood and Martha Dudman put Public Works Director Tony Smith on the hot seat Tuesday for the lack of transparency regarding the proposed purchase of the regional waste plant in Hampden.

Smith is on the board of the Municipal Review Committee, which is seeking to purchase the shuttered waste-to-energy plant which served 115 towns when it was in operation two years ago.

Wood interrupted a routine item on the agenda to approve the monthly “bypass” of trash for incineration and landfill from the closed Hampden plant to challenge Smith on many unanswered questions about the purchase of the plant by the MRC.

Member Martha Dudman added, “Tony, I know you're kind of stuck in the middle here. But it just seems to me this purchase by the MRC is a mistake. I know you have confidence in this machinery but as I understand that it's never worked anywhere else. It worked briefly here. It's been lying there unused for two years.

“Throwing a lot of money at it just feels crazy to me.”

To which Smith threw his counter punch with much unsubstantiated claims:

“Be prepared for very, very high tipping fees. If it lays there dormant, somebody will buy it, junk it and sell the materials for scrap. That's what we're trying to avoid.”

Up and down Maine’s coast, municipalities are paying about the same “tipping fee” as MRC towns. Portland, for instance, is paying $76 a ton, about the same as Tremont, an MRC town. Tipping fee is what towns pay per ton for solid waste disposal.

Ecomaine, the favored provider down state, said the average tipping fee for its 73 communities is around $70.

Smith could not recall Tuesday the tipping fee of the town which pays his salary. Yet he constructed a Stephen King scenario where we would be paying an extraordinary amount - except he didn’t know what we’re paying now.

He was too busy erecting a bogeyman which does not exist.

The QSJ in the past has questioned Smith’s conflicted role as representing my interest as a citizen and taxpayer of Mount Desert or the interest of the MRC. Smith has clearly put his stake down for the MRC, even if he has to twist facts.

The Municipal Review Committee is a 30-year-old consortium of towns within 100 miles of Bangor which banded together to achieve scale in negotiations with waste disposal providers.

In 2018 it changed course and hived off 115 of the 187 towns to grant a 20-year exclusive commitment to a new, unproven concept of a plant in Hampden under a new company, Coastal Resources of Maine.

The MRC board is made up of mostly town managers, finance directors and public works directors like Smith who possess little or no expertise in solid waste management. They relied on a consultant for his technical expertise, the same one who recommended Coastal and the same one who is ushering the MRC’s purchasing of the defunct plant.

By defunct, we mean this plant came on line in late 2019 after a year’s delay, and operated about six months before it shut down. It has been closed for more than two years. About $80 to $90 million of equity and debt went into this venture, which failed spectacularly in six months. It has been in court receivership since.

This the the record which Tony Smith is defending.

Then, in the summer of of 2020 - instead of asking what happened - the MRC board said let’s do it again, to which the consultant and lawyer and staff were happy to continue this blessed annuity.

MDI towns have had to expend costs way beyond Smith’s tipping fee to ensure some semblance of recycling.

On July 1, new bins were installed at the Southwest Harbor transfer station to enable recycling by SWH and Trenton, in addition to Tremont.

SWH incoming select member Jim Vallette, who runs a materials consulting firm, said last year the MRC should be disbanded.

TRIBUTES

Dale M. Ames

1939 - 2022

BAR HARBOR - Dale M. Ames, 83, died after a short battle with COVID on Sunday evening, May 22, 2022. He was born March 1, 1939, in Bar Harbor, son of Howard and Alida L. (Marshall) Ames.

Dale graduated from Bar Harbor High School, completed a tour in the Marine Corps, worked as a Bar Harbor police officer, and graduated from the 22nd Training Troop at Camp Keyes in Augusta, becoming a Maine State Trooper. He spent most of his 20-year career from 1964 to 1984 investigating murders as a member of the former “homicide squad,” which responded to almost every homicide in the state and retired at the rank of Detective Sergeant.

After retirement, Dale provided private detective services and periodically taught at the Maine State Police Training Academy. Driven by a deep sense of service, his time outside of law enforcement giving back as a Shriner, Mason, and Rotarian. In recognition of his years of career meritorious service upholding the highest standards for the Maine State Police, Dale was named 2017 Legendary Trooper, the highest honor that any Maine State Trooper can receive.

In 1965 he married Jill, with whom he had his two daughters. They divorced in 1973, remaining good friends. In 1979, he married Kit, with whom he shared 22 years of love, partnership, and farming.

Dale is survived by two daughters Andrea L. Ames and partner Douglas Harber of Lamoine, and Wendy L. Ames and husband James Neilson of Ellsworth; grandson Nicholas M. Vazquez and wife Phuong (Amy) Ly of Redwood City, CA; brother-in-law Jack Gilley of Southwest Harbor; sister-in-law Jeanne Gram and husband Bruce of Orono; brother-in-law Larry Vinal and wife Diane of Augusta; sister-in-law Cally Bartholomae and husband Greg of Jefferson; brother-in-law John Vinal and wife Lena of Nobleboro; sister-in-law Heather Vinal of Dudley, MA; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews. He was predeceased by wife Catherine “Kit” W. (Vinal) Ames (2011); sister Marguerite A. (Ames) Gilley (2017); brother Charles A. Ames (2000); father-in-law Lester Vinal (2009); mother-in-law Willa Vinal (2019); sister-in-law Margaret Grover (2018); brother-in-law Christopher Vinal in 2021; and ex-wife Jill (Scribner) Ames (2019).

Dale’s family is grateful to Seaport Village Healthcare in Ellsworth for their care during his last two years and Beacon Hospice Services for their compassion during his last five months.

Dale’s daughters will celebrate his life at Jordan-Fernald Funeral Homes, 113 Franklin St. Ellsworth on July 30th, 2022 at 11am; all are welcome. To carry on his spirit of service and generosity, in lieu of flowers, they request donations made in his name to a charity meaningful to him. For information about the memorial service and charitable giving, see https://daleames-memorial.net.

1139 Main Street, PO Box 99, Mount Desert, ME 04660 | Phone: 207-244-3183 | Fax: 207-244-7514 | Email: info@jordanfernald.com

Philip Edwin Dow

1937 - 2022

BASS HARBOR - Philip Edwin Dow, 84, died June 30, 2022, at his home in Bass Harbor. He was born August 10, 1937, in Bass Harbor the son of Pearl H. and Louise (Moore) Dow.

Philip graduated from the local high school and then served in the U. S. Coastguard for four years including as a lighthouse keeper at Egg Rock. He was involved with search and rescue operations. Philip was married for 64 years to Mary Helen Stanley. They were both active in the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America helping young people in the community as well as other family members. He worked for 39 years at The Jackson Laboratory. Philip enjoyed being outdoors. He liked to go boating, fishing, and camping. He was an active community member and was involved in the KP’s, The Independent Order of Odd Fellows, The Knights of Pythias and the Masonic Lodge A.F. & A.M., Post #77.

Philip is survived by his beloved wife Mary: 9 nephews, Greg Dow and wife Carrie of Bernard, Peter Dow and wife Mary Ann of Michigan, James Dow and wife Annette of Town Hill, Donald Dow and wife Angie of Ellsworth, Dennis Dow and wife Alice of Winter Harbor, Bunky Dow of Trenton, David Dow and wife Terri of Old Town, Kevin Dow and wife Donna of Eddington and Chris Dow and wife Nicole of Alabama. He was predeceased by his parents, 3 brothers Harvey M., Charlton D. and twin brother Alfred A. Dow, a niece, Becky O’Brien and niece-in-law, Tammy Dow.

Philip’s family would like to thank Stacy Elliott, Karen Lang, and Amy Wescott and all the Northern Light Hospice family for their care.
A Service of Remembrance will be held 2pm, Sat. August 20, 2022, at the Tremont Congregational Church with a reception to follow in the parish hall. Private interment will be at Head of the Harbor Cemetery, Tremont.

Those who desire may make contributions in Philip’s memory to the Southwest Harbor/Tremont Ambulance Service, P.O. Box 437, Southwest Harbor, 04679 or the NL Home Care and Hospice, P.O. Box 931, Bangor, 04402-0931.

Arrangements in care of Jordan-Fernald, 1139 Main St., Mt. Desert. Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com

JACK GILLEY

1962-2022

FRANKLIN - Jack (Jackie) Gilley died July 3, 2022, peacefully at his home in Franklin with his love, Cheryl, by his side. He was born Jan. 14, 1962, in Bar Harbor, the son of Jack, Sr. and Marguerite (Ames) Gilley.

He was a 1980 graduate of MDI High School and continued his education in Northern Maine, receiving a degree in masonry. Returning to his hometown of Southwest Harbor, working his craft for most of his life; he was an excellent mason, sought out by many. When not masonry, he worked in the fishing industry, fishing for lobster and scallops. Let’s not forget his short stint in modeling (see above!).

Life for Jackie was all about close family and friends. He was kind and considerate, always helping anyone in need. He certainly loved fun and riding the line—so many stories, a lot being told over the last year. The last 11 years he spent with Cheryl were the best of his life, laughing every single day. He was a fantastic father; he loved and adored his children and would do anything for them. Everyone who was lucky enough to have known and loved Jackie is better for it.

Jackie is predeceased by his mother, Marguerite. He is survived by his father, Jack, Sr.; son, Jesse and fiancé Shelby of Southwest Harbor and their children James and Grace; daughter, Mindy and husband Michael Letson of Chickamauga, Ga. and their children Mason, Melia and Mathias; daughter, Jillian and partner Taylor Cleaves of Bass Harbor and their children Broderick and Niko; his sister, Ellen and husband Frank Stanley and their daughter Shannon; their son, Kyle and his wife Natalie; his sister, Laura and husband Donnie Sullivan and their children Shelby and Aaron and very special great-niece and nephews; his beloved fiancée, Cheryl Moody of Franklin and her sons, Nick Sayre and fiancée Giselle Cyr and children Savannah and Eli Sayre of Southwest Harbor and Adam Sayre and wife Morgan Gilman of Brookline, Mass. and many special friends.

Thank you to Northern Light Hospice for the excellent care provided for Jackie. At his request, no celebration of life; however, raise a glass to this great friend and family man who will be greatly missed.

Condolences may be expressed at www.acadiacremation.com