Penny Overton is excited to be the Portland Press Herald’s first climate reporter. Since joining the paper in 2016, she has written about Maine’s lobster and cannabis industries, covered state politics and spent a fellowship year exploring the impact of climate change on the lobster fishery with the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team. Before moving to Maine, she has covered politics, environment, casino gambling and tribal issues in Florida, Connecticut, and Arizona. Her favorite assignments allow her to introduce readers to unusual people, cultures, or subjects. When off the clock, Penny is usually getting lost in a new book at a local coffeehouse, watching foreign crime shows or planning her family’s next adventure.
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PublishedNovember 18, 2024
Budworms ravaged Maine’s forests for years. They’re starting to come back.
An aerial survey confirmed 3,000 acres of Maine’s forest were damaged by spruce budworm in July. Modeling indicates 178,000 acres are at risk of defoliation from budworm larvae that will emerge next spring.
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PublishedNovember 12, 2024
Commission urges Maine to prepare for next round of severe winter storms
Extreme weather that caused inland and coastal flooding last winter spurred the report issued Tuesday with recommendations about how to prepare for more storms.
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PublishedOctober 31, 2024
Maine Climate Council skips green hydrogen, for now, and leans into EVs
Maine Won’t Wait 2.0, which is due out next month, is relying on getting 150,000 electric passenger vehicles on the road by 2030 to meet the state’s emissions target of lowering 1990 greenhouse gas levels by 45%.
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PublishedOctober 30, 2024
Experts focused on Maine’s resilience to extreme weather call for enhanced alerts, education
A state commission created in the wake of last winter’s severe storms wants access to the federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, which sends wireless emergency alerts to all mobile phones within a designated area.
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PublishedOctober 29, 2024
Deer and wild turkey contaminated with PFAS? What you need to know
An advisory against eating meat from certain parts of the state is the latest consequence of Maine’s history of spreading sewage sludge for fertilizer. The sludge has since been found to be high in harmful forever chemicals.
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PublishedOctober 29, 2024
How to protect ash trees and preserve a Wabanaki tradition
How to help protect the brown ash tree used in Wabanaki basketry from the invasive emerald ash borer. • Cut, buy, or burn only local firewood to avoid carrying beetle-infested wood to new territory. It’s the law. • Monitor for telltale signs of infestation – extensive woodpecker stripping of trunks, s-shaped larval tunnels in the […]
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PublishedOctober 29, 2024
Wabanaki tribes, scientists take drastic steps to save ash trees from invasive beetles
They are striving to protect the state’s remaining brown ash trees, and hope to harvest enough healthy trees in the meantime to supply future tribal artisans.
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PublishedOctober 24, 2024
Without fast EV adoption, Maine must get creative to meet emissions goals
A state-hired consultant said the Maine Climate Council will have to turn to green hydrogen and ask its industrial sector to use more renewable energy if it can’t meet its already lowered electric vehicle adoption targets by 2030.
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PublishedOctober 18, 2024
Lobsters in the shallows are emerging from their caves
Those living in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Maine are trading the rocky crevices they have always favored for a life spent out in the open foraging for food on the ocean’s muddy bottom or open ledge, according to a new UMaine study.
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PublishedOctober 13, 2024
Climate change delays, disrupts Maine’s fall foliage season
Warming temperatures are pushing back peak conditions by more than a week since the 1950s. But several factors shape the timing and brilliance of autumnal color.
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