Thousands of dead fish found floating in bays, washed ashore

Police say the thousands of dead bait fish found floating in Maine bays over the weekend is due to a fishing vessel catching more than it could handle. The Brunswick Police Marine Resource & Harbor Management Division says it followed up on weekend complaints of “hundreds of thousands” of dead fish in the bays. They determined a fishing expedition on June 6 caused the kill of the bait-fish pogies. Police say the fishing vessel was not equipped to handle a large catch of pogies and left them…
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The roads to the national forests could get bumpier. Literally. Trails could get messier. Maintenance on bridges, dams and recreation sites could become tougher. That’s the potential fate of national forest projects, thanks to President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal 2018, which begins Oct. 1. While the overall federal budget has plenty of cuts in agency after agency, the forest service plan has more drama, because the White House is seeking about $100 million in funding for capital improvement and maintenance, down from $363 million this year. That’s a 73 percent cut, and could have a huge impact on recreation, according to Rebecca Turner, senior director of programs and policy for American Forests, a nonprofit conservation organization. Turner said roads are used to access the trails leading to “majestic overlooks,” as well as lakes and rivers inside the forests. She said the budget cuts would also lead to camp sites and facilities not being maintained. Turner said if the forest service is unable to maintain safe roads, boat launches and campgrounds, they’re likely to simply close. “When you can’t access the forests, then it’s much harder to enjoy them,” she said. John Haynes, a spokesperson for the Forest Service, said it would be “premature” to comment on the proposed budget before it is finalized by Congress. The Forest Service manages the 154 national forests around the country that cover more than 180 million acres. Millions of people visit the forests every year. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said his agency will focus on maintaining “staff and expertise” in anticipation of President Trump’s infrastructure plan, few details of which were outlined in the 2018 budget. “When the infrastructure plan moves forward, then we’ll be well positioned to be able to implement projects,” Tidwell told Senators at a hearing on the forest service budget. But Tidwell told McClatchy that the administration has not made it clear when or if that money will come. “If additional funds are not made available through the infrastructure plan, or additional opportunities, then the budget request for roads and trails and infrastructure would make it very challenging, more challenging, for us to carry out our program of work,” Tidwell said. Coalter Baker, a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget, said there were no details on the infrastructure plan beyond the six-page fact sheet included in the budget which does not mention the forest service. “It’s nice to hope, but until we see a draft let alone a bill … we’re hoping for something that we don’t know would exist,” Turner said. Both Republicans and Democrats have raised concerns. “How do we sustain the $10 billion generated by visitors to our national forests and the 143,000 jobs they create if we don’t have roads to access the forest, or safe and accessible facilities or hiking trails for visitors to use once they are there,” Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. said at a Senate hearing recently on the forest service budget. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also raised concerns about the cut’s impact on roads, noting cuts could make it tougher for timber purchasers to access the forests. H. Sterling Burnett, a research fellow on environmental policy at the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank in Illinois, said the budget cuts are necessary to control spending. He said since cuts to politically popular programs such as defense or entitlements like Medicare are unlikely, agencies like the forest service will have to see their budgets squeezed. “[Budget cuts] have to come and they have to be steep,” he said. “You can’t fiddle around the edges.” Burnett said the government should consider selling some of its land to private companies both to raise money and to reduce the amount of forest it has to manage. “There is no reason the federal government needs to own 100 million acres of forest,” he said.
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