|
Good afternoon!
On Monday of this week, WMTW's Jackie Mundry featured a story titled "Understanding the Impact of a Spruce Budworm Outbreak in Maine." For this segment, Jackie traveled to Orono where she and her crew toured the University of Maine's Spruce Budworm Lab. The story featured the Angela Mech, director of the SBW Lab and Brittany Schappach of the Maine Forest Service. The segment can be found online here.
***
We spent Tuesday roaming the halls of the State House anticipating action on the Supplemental Budget, which contains a $2 million allocation for the implementation of the Early Intervention Strategy to control a building spruce budworm outbreak on nearly 300,000 acres of Aroostook County this spring. While a few votes were taken, unfortunately, the bill failed to gain 2/3 support due to unrelated factors, and the emergency preamble that would allow the bill to take effect immediately following the Governor's signature was removed. The bill has now gone back to the Senate in non-concurrence. We will continue to closely monitor the progress of this bill with baited breath.
***
On Thursday, the Energy Utilities and Technology Committee held a public hearing on a number of bills pertaining to Net Energy Billing. While the Council testified 'neither for nor against' on the bills, we took the opportunity to provide some real-life examples of how this program impacts our members, some for the better and some for the worse. This hearing drew quite the crowd with a number of MFPC member companies represented. Thanks to those who traveled to Augusta to participate.
***
MFPC testified before the Housing and Economic Development Committee 'neither for nor against' LD 161, "Resolve, Directing the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to Convene a Stakeholder Group Tasked with a Comprehensive Overhaul and Modernization of the State Subdivision Laws."
While we appreciate the sponsor's intent to modernize subdivision laws, our landowners are keeping a close eye on this conversation to be sure that the bill doesn't discourage development in rural areas where housing shortages contribute to workforce challenges.
***
Also on Thursday, we engaged on two bills before the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee dealing with confidentiality. The first bill was LD 417, "An Act Regarding the Confidentiality of Certain Records Belonging to the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Related to the Bureau of Forestry." The Council testified 'neither for nor against' this bill because, while we appreciate the need for investigative records held by the MFS to be confidential during ongoing investigations, this bill is drafted broadly in a way that would have a number of undesired consequences. Our testimony on LD 417 can be found here.
The second bill we testified on was LD 379, "An Act Regarding Confidential Information Gathered for Forest Fire Emergency Response and Planning." This bill, brought forward by the Maine Forest Service, would clarify that certain information obtained by the department for purposes of emergency planning is confidential and should be exempt from Freedom of Access Act requests. Our testimony in support of LD 379 can be found here.
***
The final thing we'd like to bring your attention to is an opinion piece featured today in the Bangor Daily News, "Maine's forests are vulnerable to wildfires and a spruce budworm outbreak." Authored by Patty Cormier, Maine State Forester and Robby Gross, Maine's Chief Forest Ranger, the piece highlights the urgent need to implement the Early Intervention Strategy to impacted areas in northern Maine this spring to protect our forest from wildfires.
That's all for now. A preview of the week ahead is included below. Should you have any questions about our policy positions, please don't hesitate to reach out.
| 
