🏞 Another conservation fight is brewing in western Maine.
◉ The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in the early stages of examining a potential wildlife refuge in the High Peaks region centered on Rangeley and Carrabassett Valley in Franklin County. It is already prompting pushback.
◉ Two of the three county commissioners voted this week to send a letter of opposition to Maine's congressional delegation, The Daily Bulldog reported. That was after the commission took a May vote against the idea as well.
◉ The federal government has local partners and is studying a 200,000-acre area, according to the Sun Journal. Officials have been holding public sessions across the region with no firm plans looking imminent at this point.
◉ Franklin County was one of the hotbeds of opposition to the Central Maine Power Co. corridor. Mills attended a 2019 meeting in her hometown of Farmington to defend that project, which was rebuked in an overwhelming 262-102 vote despite her efforts. Rural towns in the area opposed it as well.
☣️ State and federal action is afoot on Agent Orange exposure.
◉ Agent Orange, the toxic herbicide used by the military during the Vietnam War, is still leading to policy changes aimed at aiding the 3.5 million U.S. veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during their service.
◉ The actions of Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, were highlighted by the CBC this week. He was the sponsor of a Maine bill to assemble a commission to study whether a group of U.S. veterans were exposed to Agent Orange during training in Canada.
◉ U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is holding a news conference on Thursday with a top official at the veterans health system in Togus on how to navigate claims under a 2022 law opening up health coverage to more veterans exposed to chemicals during their service. An Aug. 9 deadline for backdated claims under the law is closing in. |
|
