✉️State News Update from Representative Nathan Wadsworth

New Major Federal Funding Will Be Used To Expand Lab and Testing Capacity Across Maine

The $52.7 million grant, previously announced by Maine’s Congressional Delegation, has been received and will help expand State and rural hospital lab capacity and testing sites across Maine in the coming weeks and months

The State of Maine has now received $52.7 million in Federal grant funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC) to bolster epidemiological and laboratory capacity to respond to infectious diseases, particularly COVID-19. The State will use this funding to enhance its ability to prevent, detect, and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in Maine by expanding lab capacity and testing sites across Maine in the coming weeks and months.

The administration outlined the State’s three primary goals for the $52.7 million investment, including:

Expanding the State’s Lab Capacity: The State is aiming to expand, both in the short-and longer-term, capacity at the State’s Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory (HETL), including expanding physical space and increasing staffing to increase the number of testing options. In the longer-term, the State intends to accelerate the construction of its new laboratory in Augusta, which broke ground prior to COVID-19. Investing in a state-of-the-art laboratory facility in Maine will facilitate COVID-19 response, innovation, and public health generally.

Bolstering Rural Hospital Lab Capacity: COVID-19 has underscored the long-standing challenges rural residents face in accessing timely health care. Building on the Mills Administration’s initiative on rural health transformation, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) will work with rural hospitals to expand laboratory capacity to help them respond to COVID-19 and other infectious disease outbreaks.

Establishing Drive-Through Testing Sites: As the State lab ramps up testing capacity, the State of Maine also aims to increase the number of testing sites outside of health care office settings. Currently, Maine has 38 testing sites outside of office settings. The State is exploring options to partner with businesses and others to establish new so-called drive-through “swab and send” sites in Maine. This would allow primary care providers to recommend patients get testing in sites that are both accessible and safe.

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Maine CDC are in the initial planning stages and will unveil more detailed plans in the coming weeks. This funding builds on the Mills Administration’s partnership with IDEXX to expand testing in Maine and allowing for the elimination of the testing prioritization system so that health care providers can recommend testing for anyone they suspect of having COVID-19. As announced earlier this week, clinicians may now order tests for symptomatic people and people without symptoms who may be at risk for transmitting COVID-19 to others.

Public comment period now open on wording of energy corridor ballot question

The Secretary of State is now accepting public comment at https://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/upcoming/energycorridorcomments.html for the wording of the energy transmission project citizens' initiative question that is qualified to appear on the Nov. 3, 2020 Referendum Election ballot.

The Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions initially certified the citizens initiative Resolve, To Reject the New England Clean Energy Connect Transmission Project view doc at https://www.maine.gov/sos/news/2020/corridorballotcomment.html on March 4, with an amended decision issued April 1 following a court ruling. The new decision, at https://www.maine.gov/sos/news/2020/RemandDecisionCMP4.1.20.pdf issued April 1, finds 66,117 valid signatures. A minimum of 63,067 signatures from registered Maine voters is required to qualify for the ballot.

State law at http://legislature.maine.gov/legis/statutes/21-A/title21-Asec905-A.html requires Secretary Dunlap to present the ballot question "concisely and intelligibly." He will be accepting public comments regarding the questions form and content for a 30-day period, beginning today, Friday, May 22 until 5 p.m. on Monday, June 22, 2020.

The Secretary of State is proposing the following wording to appear on the ballot for this initiative: Do you want to adopt a Resolve directing the Maine Public Utilities Commission to reverse its approval of the proposed New England Clean Energy Connect power transmission line?

Comments supporting or opposing the citizens initiative will not be considered; this 30-day period is to receive comments only on the ballot question itself, and whether the question presents an accurate and clear representation of the proposed resolve.

Public comments must be received by the Secretary of State prior to the close of business (5:00 p.m.) on Monday, June 22, 2020.

Written comments may be filed with the Secretary of State in the following ways:

By email at sos.office@maine.gov ; use subject line Public Comment. By mail at Secretary of State, Attn: Public Comment, 148 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0148; or By hand delivery at: Office of the Secretary of State, Nash School Building, 103 Sewall St., 2nd Floor, Augusta, Maine.

Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week, Arbor Week, and National Invasive Species Awareness 

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) is marking Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week, Arbor Week and with states across the nation, National Invasive Species Awareness Week (NISAW).

EAB AWARENESS WEEK:

DACF's Forest Health & Monitoring and Animal and Plant Health divisions are asking everyone to take time out for trees and, in particular, look at ash trees for signs of the destructive emerald ash borer (EAB). Since discovering EAB in northern Aroostook County in May of 2018 and western York County, during September 2018, DACF established a quarantine to protect Maine's forest and timber resources. With a Cumberland County discovery (Payson Park, in Portland Sep 2019), Maine's EAB quarantine also includes Cumberland County and four southwestern towns in Oxford County.

Early detection of EAB in new areas helps the MFS target resources to help slow the natural and human aided spread of this devastating insect and homeowners and land managers make informed decisions about managing their ash trees. 

The brilliant green adult beetles will not be visible in Maine this time of year, but there are many signs our ash trees may show when infested. The Department site www.maine.gov/eab is an excellent resource to learn more about EAB and to report suspected attacks.

EAB is native to Asia and probably hitched a ride to North America on crates, pallets, or other solid-wood packing material in the late 1990s. Movement of infested firewood has been a critical part of its rapid spread across eastern North America. EAB can move only about a half a mile a year on its own but can move hundreds of miles in a single day within a piece of infested firewood.

Emerald ash borer is not the only threat to our forests that can move in the seemingly good firewood. Numerous other insects and diseases can also hitchhike in wood. 

Spread the word: use local heat-treated firewood. If you have friends or family planning to visit Maine, make sure they are aware of the state and federal rules that ban the movement of untreated firewood (www.maine.gov/firewood). Sources of treated or local firewood can be found online at firewood scout http://firewoodscout.org/s/ME/.

ARBOR WEEK

Arbor Week happens each spring, and MFS and Project Canopy use this as a focused opportunity to encourage people to plant and care for trees. It is also the perfect opportunity for everyone to learn more about invasive insects threatening Maine's urban landscapes and forests. In addition to educational opportunities, during Arbor Week, MFS and Project Canopy honor communities throughout Maine who have earned Tree City USA designation. These are cities and towns with strong urban- and community forestry programs and community leaders and citizens dedicated to protecting and growing their investment. Tree City USA awards set the standard high for others to follow.

NATIONAL INVASIVE SPECIES AWARENESS WEEK

NISAW is a nationwide event designed to raise awareness of invasive species. In Maine, invasive species are more than a threat, and they are taking their toll on the economy.

Invasive terrestrial plants threaten Maine's wildlife and can harm working forests and productive farms. Plants such as glossy buckthorn steadily invade high-quality forests, crowd out native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers, and out-compete the next generation of trees. Along rivers and streams, Japanese knotweed forms dense stands that worsen flooding and prevent colonization by native plants. Knotweed roots and shoots are carried downstream in floodwaters, spreading the problem to new locations. Maine prohibits the sale of thirty-three species of invasive plants, and over 100 species are listed on an Advisory List of invasive plants to help guide land managers. The Maine Natural Areas Program (MNAP) within DACF tracks invasive plant distribution and management using the online mapping tool iMapInvasives. It encourages Mainers to work with their town conservation commission, local land trust, or garden club to spread the word about invasive plants and work together to remove them. For more information, visit the MNAP website or iMapInvasives.org.

Maine's forest trees are under attack from multiple invasive forest insect pests, and the threat of new pests invading Maine is constant. Invasive insects such as EAB and hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) will forever change Maine's forests as they spread and continue to kill trees throughout the state. Other invasive pests like browntail moth directly affect human health by causing severe skin rashes and respiratory reactions. Other nearby invasive insects like Asian longhorned beetle or diseases like oak wilt have similar potential to destroy Maine's forests even more so in the future if they hitchhike within infested firewood. MFS has a strict out-of-state firewood ban to prevent devastating introductions like these. Natural resource managers everywhere continue to encourage the use of local firewood at DACF, the divisions of Forest Health & Monitoring and Animal and Plant Health, working together as Maine Bug Watch, monitor and control invasive insects and diseases whenever possible.

(Courtesy MIFW) The illegal stocking of species like northern pike, black crappie, or largemouth bass can have the most significant and apparent impacts on Maine's native fisheries. Still, sometimes the release of new fish species can occur for other reasons. These illegal acts are often intentional, for instance, when someone wants a particular species of sport fish in a lake close to their home. Unintentional introductions can happen as a result of negligence related to threats found in an angler's bait bucket. While the level of risk from this type of introduction may be less than that from the intentional establishment of large predatory species, impacts to native fish populations can occur. MDIFW already limits the fish species that can legally be used as bait and prohibits the unauthorized importation of baitfish from outside the state as two strategies to reduce risk. Still, recently a third strategy was employed to increase awareness related to using live fish as bait. In January 2020, MDIFW changed fishing regulations in northern Maine to prohibit the use of live fish as bait under the general law and only allow fishing with live bait fish on certain waters (listed explicitly in Maine's Open Water and Ice Fishing Laws). This change reinforces the importance of this region's abundant native and wild fishery resources. It stresses the potential damage to those fisheries with the introduction of baitfish where they don't belong.

Maine's pristine lakes are also threatened by invasive aquatic plants. The infestation of Maine's lakes and ponds by aggressive non-indigenous plants has the potential to interfere with recreation, alter fish and wildlife habitat, degrade water quality and overshadow virtually all other lake water quality issues and concerns. This form of "biological pollution" is self-sustaining. One inadvertently transplanted plant fragment or seed from a boat trailer is all that it takes to begin this environmental nightmare. Maine is the final frontier to be conquered by many of these "aquatic invaders." All of our neighboring states are embroiled in costly and frustrating battles to control invasive aquatic species (IAS). Learn more and report suspicious plants to the Maine DEP Invasive Aquatic Plant Program.