The State of Maine's Environment is a regular series of reports written by senior environmental policy majors at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. The State of Maine's Environment 2010 is the sixth State of Maine's Environment report created by students enrolled in ES 493: Environmental Policy Practicum taught by Philip J. Nyhus, Environmental Studies Program. Topics in this report include State Parks, Lakes, Biomass Energy, Renewable Ocean Energy, and Downeast Maine. In each chapter, we explore the history and context of the topic, evaluate its current state, and conclude with major findings and policy recommendations.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of state parks in Maine. Currently, there are 49 state parks, which include 36 parks, 12 historic sites, and Baxter. Visitation to these parks over the last 20 years has remained relatively flat at around 2 million visitors annually. This year visitation has seen a boost from advertising about the anniversary. State parks are fairly well distributed across Maine, with 80% of Maine residents living within 15 miles of a state park. Furthermore, State parks are chronically underfunded especially in capital requirements, forcing the Bureau of Parks and Lands to adopt alternative funding and outreach strategies. Conservation is not the primary focus of state parks, and they comprise a small percentage of conservation lands in Maine. Maine state parks continue to provide Mainers with a diverse range of accessible and low-cost recreational opportunities close to their homes.

Lakes are a vital ecological, economic, and social resource. They provide the state with 64% of its public drinking water and over 60% of Maine’s residents use lakes for recreation. On average, Maine’s lakes are mesotrophic and their water quality is comparatively better than the US. Also, Maine has the least infestations of invasive aquatic plants in New England, and has the unique opportunity to prevent further spreading . Lakes also have a large impact on the state’s economy. Total direct expenditures on lakes are equal to 5% of the state’s GDP. However, 30 lakes are listed as impaired. This is largely a result of the state’s industries, specifically agriculture and hydropower. Residential development is also a major threat to lakes; improper shoreline development makes lakes 3 times as likely to be in poor health.

Maine is in a unique position to pursue large-scale wood biomass energy initiatives. Maine possesses a long forestry tradition, and 86% of state land is timberland. Providing 35% of Maine’s energy consumption, the scale of biomass dwarfs other renewable energy sources, giving it immediate potential for long-term carbon emissions reduction. Maine’s forests are also multi-use resources that hold important values in terms of wildlife habitat, biodiversity, recreation, and watershed protection in addition to wood production. Ecologically responsible forest management and nutrient supplementation can help mitigate the threats that increased harvesting pose to forest ecology. Finally, biomass is favorable over fossil fuels in terms of price, support of Maine’s economy, reduction of carbon emissions, and preservation of public health. It emits considerably less air pollution than fossil fuel energy sources do, with 7-32 times less life-cycle carbon emissions.

Maine’s oceans play a vital role in the state’s economic and social well-being. The use of this resource has expanded to include potential energy extraction for tidal turbines, wave generators, and wind turbines. The opportunity for Maine to move toward state energy independence required the transition from R & D to commercial projects that prioritize offshore wind development, construct tidal projects in compatible locations, all the while delaying wave projects until technology is improved. Additionally, continued exploration of these technology’s environmental, economic and social impacts, along with improved state and federal permitting structures must be completed before proposed projects move forward. Such exploration requires collaboration throughout the process to ensure transparency and effective communication between all stakeholders especially with regard to the use of a Marine Spatial Planning mechanism.

Despite its abundance of natural resources, the Downeast region as a whole is one of the poorest areas of Maine. Washington County has higher unemployment and poverty rates than Hancock County, where the service sector has replaced natural resource industries in employment.Cost cutting measures in the forest industry have converted forest land to non-industrial ownership, but conservation has also grown, with 60% of conservation now in the private sector. 29% of Washington County and 15% of Hancock County are currently conserved.Depletion of the area’s fisheries has led to a decline of the fishing industry, which currently relies on lobster. Lobster landings are unevenly distributed and more greatly benefit the economy of Hancock County. The top 6 overnight and top 5 day tourism destinations are concentrated in Hancock County, and telecommunications technology is lacking in Washington County. The distribution of these resources perpetuates the income and employment disparities in the region.

The State of Maine's Environment is a regular series of reports written by senior environmental policy majors at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. The State of Maine's Environment 2009 is the fifth State of Maine's Environment report created by students enrolled in ES 493: Environmental Policy Practicum taught by Philip J. Nyhus, Environmental Studies Program. Topics in this report include four topics of importance to Maine: Coastal Marine Policy, Rivers and Dams, Organic Farms, and Sustainable Cities. In each chapter, we explore the history and context of the topic, evaluate its current state, and conclude with major findings and policy recommendations. In The State of Coastal and Marine Policy, we find that Maine’s coastal and marine (ocean) resources play a vital role in the health of Maine’s economy. In 2007, Maine’s coastal municipalities employed 55% of the state’s population and accounted for 60% of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP). The vitality and character of these municipalities are at risk if the state’s coastal and marine economic resources are degraded. Presently, threatened resources such as Maine’s sea urchin and sea scallop fisheries are managed by the state and federal governments in a series of issue and species-specific management plans. The spatial boundaries of these plans geographically overlap, creating a network of interconnecting regions, management strategies, and authorities. In our assessment, we found that 68% of the geographical area in Maine’s state waters is characterized by having 10 or more overlapping management zones and regulatory bodies. Further regional, federal, and international jurisdictional boundaries combine with these management plans to create a complicated administrative environment. This administrative environment is not conducive to the development and siting of important emerging technologies, like offshore wind farms, requiring the agreement of multiple agencies, interests, and mandates. Because of the importance of Maine’s ocean resources, it is imperative for Maine to adopt an effective management and planning policy that can dynamically adapt to new issues and incorporate new technologies. We recommend that Maine adopt an ocean governing structure similar to a proposed National Ocean Council by President Obama’s Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force to effectively integrate issue and species-specific plans into ecosystem-based approaches to management. In The State of Rivers and Dams, we find that the 31,752 miles of rivers and streams in Maine are important to Maine’s economy, ecological health, and cultural heritage. Dams have shaped both the natural flows and the societal uses of rivers in Maine for over two centuries. Although no new dams have been built since 1986, remaining dams continue to have environmental and economic impacts. In this chapter we discuss the state of rivers and dams in Maine, focusing on the history of dams, their current status, and the growing trend of dam removal. We give particular attention to diadromous – or migratory – fish and how dams and dam removals affect their traditional migration routes. We conducted an extensive literature review and performed original analysis using Geographic Information Systems. This chapter shows that Maine’s surface water quality is commendable, ranking number one in the U.S. We illustrate the growth of the number of dams in Maine over time, and investigate a boom in dam construction between 1875 and 1900. We also examine dam removal, a contentious topic, in light of the federal and state regulatory processes and the environmental benefits and drawbacks of dams. Finally, we analyze the historical habitat of 12 species of diadromous fish and find that 65% of dams that have been removed in Maine, or are slated for removal in the near future, intersect the habitats of six or more species while less than 1% of dams still standing intersect the habitats of six or more species . We conclude that while Maine’s river health is in excellent condition, more can be done to allow diadromous fish populations renewed access to their historical habitat and spawning grounds. Although fish bypasses are feasible, only a small percentage of migrating fish find the necessary entrance. Dam removal is an increasing trend and should be considered as a viable option to restore diadromous fish habitat and spawning grounds. We offer several recommendations to increase river health and productivity, including the continued monitoring of river and stream health, a state-wide prioritization of dams to consider for fish bypass installation, and an increased emphasis on dam removal as a method for river restoration and public safety. In The State of Organic Agriculture, we examine trends in overall agriculture and changes in organic production over time in Maine relative to other states, primarily using USDA Census of Agriculture statistics. Additionally, we use a Geographic Information System (GIS) to map locations of organic farms in Maine certified by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA). We find that Maine, although a relatively small state in overall agricultural production, is a national leader in organic agricultural production. We examine reasons for this status and discuss future scenarios for organic agriculture in Maine. We also consider benefits and drawbacks of having national organic standards. We conclude that although organic production in Maine requires continued support, Maine policy makers could also promote growth in agriculture by further encouraging local consumption of Maine produced foods. Additionally we recommend that Maine increase efforts to conserve farmland by supporting organic farmers in the state and helping to protect them from development pressures. In The State of Sustainable Communities, we find that sustainable development requires reconciling competing environmental, economic, and social interests. Local governments are increasing efforts to address sustainability issues in response to perceived federal inaction. Maine currently lacks a method to effectively measure and encourage local sustainability activity. In response, we developed a prototype Sustainability Activity Index (SAI) to measure the seriousness with which Maine towns and cities are addressing energy and recycling issues. We evaluated energy and recycling scores for 476 Maine municipalities and found a low level of local activity, with a state-wide mean SAI score of 1.56 (SD ± 1.05) out of 8 possible points. We found that local governments with high SAI scores have larger budgets, are adjacent to postsecondary institutions, and have higher median household incomes and college graduation rates. We conclude that our SAI serves as a useful tool for comparing sustainability activity across Maine communities. We recommend the state delegate responsibility to a governmental or non-governmental entity that could publish SAI scores for all 489 incorporated municipalities in Maine. We recommend the responsible entity improve our SAI by engaging relevant stakeholders to create and publish an annual “Maine Local Government Sustainability Report Card” that is effective, robust, relevant, and transparent.

Crop raiding by wild elephants is one of the most significant sources of park–people conflict in Sumatra, Indonesia. The distribution, impact and conservation implications of elephant crop-raiding in 13 villages that border Way Kambas National Park in southern Sumatra were studied for 18 months. The data are based on rapid village and field assessments, data logs maintained by village observers and a quantitative household survey. Elephants raided crops year-round at a mean rate of 0.53 elephants per day for the entire study area. The frequency of crop raiding was related to vegetation type along the park border, the size and presence of rivers, and the distance to the park's Elephant Training Center (ETC), which houses about 150 captive elephants. Wild elephants damaged at least 450,000 sq m of corn, rice, cassava, beans and other annual crops, and close to 900 coconut, banana and other perennial trees in the area surveyed. Elephants killed or injured 24 people over a 12-year period in villages near the park. Villagers try to reduce elephant damage by guarding fields, digging trenches between the park and their fields, and modifying their cropping patterns. Elephant–human conflict decreases the probability of support from local people for conservation efforts. We suggest methods to improve the effectiveness of existing elephant trenches, the need to consider electric fences, external support to affected villages, and compensation to villagers for any damage caused.

We describe results of a multi-year effort to strengthen consideration of the human dimension into endangered species risk assessments and to strengthen research capacity to understand biodiversity risk assessment in the context of coupled human-natural systems. A core group of social and biological scientists have worked with a network of more than 50 individuals from four countries to develop a conceptual framework illustrating how human-mediated processes influence biological systems and to develop tools to gather, translate, and incorporate these data into existing simulation models. A central theme of our research focused on (1) the difficulties often encountered in identifying and securing diverse bodies of expertise and information that is necessary to adequately address complex species conservation issues; and (2) the development of quantitative simulation modeling tools that could explicitly link these datasets as a way to gain deeper insight into these issues. To address these important challenges, we promote a “meta-modeling” approach where computational links are constructed between discipline-specific models already in existence. In this approach, each model can function as a powerful stand-alone program, but interaction between applications is achieved by passing data structures describing the state of the system between programs. As one example of this concept, an integrated meta-model of wildlife disease and population biology is described. A goal of this effort is to improve science-based capabilities for decision making by scientists, natural resource managers, and policy makers addressing environmental problems in general, and focusing on biodiversity risk assessment in particular.

The second edition of Tigers of the World explores tiger biology, ecology, conservation, management, and the science and technology that make this possible. In 1988, when the first edition was published, tiger conservation was still in its infancy, and 2 decades later there has been a revolution not only in what is known, but how information about tigers is obtained and disseminated. In the fast changing world of conservation, there is a great need to summarize the vast and current state-of-the-art, to put this into historical perspective, and to speculate in what yet remains to be done.

Tigers of the World, second edition fulfills this need by bringing together in a unique way the world's leading tiger experts into one volume. Despite the challenges ahead, there are bright spots in this story and lessons aplenty not only for tiger specialists but large carnivore specialists, conservation biologists, wildlife managers, natural resource policymakers, and most importantly the caring public.

Biologists have made considerable progress in developing realistic simulation models to predict extinction risks for threatened species. Social scientists have to date had a more limited role in these efforts. This limited involvement comes despite the growing acknowledgment by population biologists and simulation modelers that this additional input is necessary for these models to accurately reflect the impact of humans and human-dominated landscapes on wildlife populations. We argue that collaborations among social and biological scientists can provide unparalleled opportunities to develop new conceptual and simulation tools for biodiversity risk assessment. One challenge is that while the value of interdisciplinary research is widely recognized, interdisciplinary teamwork is dif®cult to achieve. We suggest strategies to strengthen such cross-disciplinary collaboration, including efforts to link diverse models and to build networks of researchers who have not historically collaborated.Weconclude with questions intended to guide further discussions about how to integrate social science information into biodiversity risk assessments in the future.

The risks associated with tiger attacks on people in the wild are well documented. There may currently be more tigers in captivity than in the wild, but relatively little is known about the risks of injury or death associated with owning and managing captive tigers and other large carnivores. The purpose of this study was to conduct a global assessment of attacks by captive tigers on people, with particular emphasis on cases in the United States. Our analysis of 30 international media sources and additional documents uncovered 59 unique incidents in 1998-2001 in which people were reportedly injured or killed by captive tigers. In the United States, seven people were reportedly killed and at least 27 were injured - a rate of 1.75 fatal attacks and at least nine nonfatal attacks per year. All but one fatal attack in the United States occurred in situations where tigers were privately owned or held in private facilities. Forty-two percent of the victims were classified as visitors, and almost one-quarter of the victims were under the age of 20. These results suggest that the victims underestimated the dangers posed by direct contact with these animals. In this work we review current legislation regarding captive ownership of tigers and other large exotic animals, and contradict claims by those who support private ownership of tigers and other large felids that the risks associated with owning and viewing these animals are insignificant. We conclude that the growing number of people who own tigers and other large exotic animals is cause for concern because of the danger to the animals, the handlers, and the public. The problem of private ownership of dangerous exotic animals has broad implications for tiger and large-carnivore conservation, public health, and animal welfare. We support the regulation of private ownership of dangerous exotic animals, and encourage scientific analysis of this contentious issue. Zoo Biol 22:573-586, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The value of traditional ecological knowledge for biodiversity research and conservation is widely recognized. The value of wildlife knowledge provided by recent migrants is less clear. Photographs of 10 mammal species were shown to 622 individuals in communities near Way Kambas National Park in Sumatra, Indonesia, to assess wildlife knowledge among recent migrants and to identify socio-economic variables that can be used to identify more knowledgeable informants. Knowledge scores were categorized by taxonomic family, genus and species. Large, charismatic and abundant animals were identified more frequently than smaller and more secretive animals. Higher knowledge scores were significantly associated with males, higher educational attainment and past experience with these animals. Number of years respondents had lived in the area and respondent age were also good predictors of higher scores. The characteristics of animals that were likely to be identified more accurately were assessed. Generic terms used to describe animals can confound individual responses. Biodiversity research, conservation and education programmes frequently rely on ‘local’ knowledge to inform management and policy. This information can be a valuable addition to field-based efforts to identify the distribution and abundance of rare endangered species. With more and more migrants living near the world’s wildlife protected areas, care must be taken to understand how human demographic shifts may affect such studies.

This paper describes results of a Sino- American field survey seeking evidence of South China tigers Panthera tigris amoyensis in the wild. In 2001 and 2002 field surveys were conducted in eight reserves in five provinces identified by government authorities as habitat most likely to contain tigers. The surveys evaluated and documented evidence for the presence of tigers, tiger prey and habitat disturbance. Approximately 290 km of mountain trails were evaluated. Infrared remote cameras set up in two reserves captured 400 trap days of data. Thirty formal and numerous informal interviews were conducted with villagers to document wildlife knowledge, livestock management practices, and local land and resource use. We found no evidence of wild South China tigers, few prey species, and no livestock depredation by tigers reported in the last 10 years. Forest areas designated as tiger reserves, averaging about 100 km2 in size, are too small to support even a few tigers because commercial tree farms and other habitat conversion is common, and people and their livestock dominate these fragments. While our survey may not have been exhaustive, and there may be a single tiger or a few isolated tigers still remaining at sites we missed, our results strongly indicate that no remaining viable populations of South China tigers occur within its historical range. We conclude that continued field efforts are needed to ascertain whether any wild tigers may yet persist, concurrent with the need to consider options for the eventual recovery and restoration of wild tiger populations from existing captive populations.

Human-tiger conflict occurs in Indonesia but there is little recent information about the scope of the problem, and adequate policies are not in place to address the conflict. Published and unpublished reports of conflict between Sumatran tigers Panthera tigris sumatrae, people and their livestock were collected and analysed to characterize the extent, distribution and impact of human-tiger actively conflict on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. Reportedly, between 1978 and 1997, tigers killed 146 people and injured 30, and killed at least 870 livestock. Conflict was less common in protected areas and more common in inter- mediate disturbance areas such as multiple-use forests where tigers and people coexist. In Indonesia there is a need to develop a definition of problem tigers, a database to track conflicts, and a process to respond immediately to conflicts when they occur. Without a better understanding of human-tiger conflict and a concerted effort to proactively address the problem, future landscape-level tiger conservation and management efforts may be jeopardized.