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In This Issue

*Join a Winter Webinar

*Common Waters: Connecting Communities

*LD 2141: "Bottle Bill" Update
*Get Involved with LakeSmart in 2026
*Lake Conference Save the Date
*EPA Funding Update

Join a Webinar

Please join us for two more lunch time webinars this winter to learn more about what’s going on with Maine's lakes. 


Salts in our Watershed 

Presented by Karen Wilson, PhD, University of Southern Maine 


February 18 at 12:00 pm 

Join us to learn about salt in our watersheds, the state of current research in this area, and ongoing research in Maine from Dr. Wilson. Dr. Wilson is an Associate Professor at the University of Southern Maine and has collected over a decade of data on streams and ponds impacted by salt in her region. 

Register Here 


Relocating a Road and Adding Native Plantings to Protect Water Quality 

Presented by Rebecca Jacobs, Boothbay Drinking Water District 


March 18 at 12:30 pm 

Boothbay Region Water District supplies water to the Boothbay peninsula from two open-source water supplies: Adams Pond and Knickerbocker Lake. As is common in New England, the roads surrounding Adams Pond are very close to the water supply, often less than 10 feet. To reduce non-point source pollution, the water district moved 1000’ linear feet of road frontage on Adams Pond and added nearly one acre of vegetated buffer in 2025. Learn more about the process of adding buffers and how lessons learned can be applied far beyond the project area. 

Register Here 


Missed a webinar? You can view recordings of past webinars HERE.

Common Waters: Connecting Communities

Common Waters is a new collaboration between Maine Lakes and Maine artists rooted in the understanding that water is shared - ecologically, culturally, and ethically. Through newly commissioned works, artists will respond to Maine’s lakes as living systems shaped by time, care, and human presence and create a unique work of art that will be reproduced as fine art prints. These works are meant to move outward, carrying attention and meaning. Each piece will become a moment of connection between art and advocacy, observation and responsibility.


By connecting artists with lake organizations, Common Waters forges new relationships between creative practice and conservation. Proceeds from print sales support the ongoing work of Maine Lakes, affirming art as a form of stewardship and collaboration as a way of caring for what we hold in common.


Our first commission was awarded to Tessa Greene O'Brien. Tessa is an artist & curator based in South Portland, Maine. She received a BS in Fine Art from Skidmore College and an MFA from Maine College of Art and Design. O'Brien has shown throughout the United States, including recent exhibitions at Candice Madey Gallery, New York; La Loma Projects, Los Angeles; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME; Platform Project Space, Brooklyn; Vardan Gallery, Los Angeles; Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland; Buoy Gallery, Kittery; Sears Peyton Gallery, New York; Studio E Gallery, Seattle; and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. She was a 2022-2023 Residential Fellow at The Lunder Institute for American Art at Colby College; other residencies include Surf Point, Tides Institute, Monson Arts, Haystack, Hewnoaks, Vermont Studio Center, Joseph A Fiore Art Center, and Stephen Pace House. Grants and awards include the Berkshire Taconic Foundation, Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, The Ellis Beauregard Foundation, the Maine Arts Commission, the Joseph. A. Fiore Painting Prize, St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award, and the Kindling Fund at SPACE Gallery. 


O’Brien has curated group and solo exhibitions at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Alice Gauvin Gallery, TEMPOArts, and numerous shows at Able Baker Contemporary, where she was previously a director.


Tessa will be creating a new work of art for us in 2026, and will be joining us in hosting a community event later this year. We will keep you updated on her progress, fine print purchase options, and ways to get more involved in the future.

LD 2141: "Bottle Bill" Update

AI-generated image of returnable bottles and cans on a lakeshore.

Thank you to everyone who is supporting LD 2141, a bill that would divert unredeemed deposits from beverage cans and bottles to funds that would support lake and farmland protection. In addition to more than two dozen people speaking up at the hearing , there were over 80 pieces of testimony in support submitted online and we have more than 1,400 signatories on a sign-on letter expressing support for the bill.  

Didn't sign the letter? It's not too late...sign today.

Want to see what others had to say? Read testimony here.

Members of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee asked great questions about the accounting of bottle redemption, and most seemed supportive of lake and farmland protection as worthy causes deserving this source of public funds. 


The opposition to the bill is from industry lobbyists representing “initiators of deposits” (manufacturers, distributors or other entities that collect container deposits). Their primary claim is that they rely on unredeemed deposits to pay down the cost of managing the bottle redemption program. They are mandated to give the Maine Department of Environmental Protection just over $1million each year for the state’s role in overseeing the redemption program but they retain the remainder of the funds.


Contrary to lobbyists’ claims that no other states direct unredeemed deposits to environmental programs, New York requires 80% of unredeemed beverage container deposits go to the state’s Environmental Protection Fund and General Fund. Beverage distributors keep 20% of unredeemed deposits. In Vermont, all unredeemed deposits for non-liquor containers are directed to funding clean water programs.  


While we appreciate that Initiators of Deposits run valuable businesses in Maine that support local economies, we disagree with their argument that all unredeemed deposits should be used to reduce their costs for the redemption program. As the creators of a massive waste stream, it is incumbent that bottlers, not consumers, pay the full cost of the redemption program and support environmental causes outside of the bottle bill redemption program. LD 2141 takes just 25-30% of unredeemed deposits and puts them back into underfunded environmental protection programs.


And as one wise advocate pointed out at the hearing, clean water benefits us all, including the beverage industry.  


Action Steps for You: 

• If you haven’t signed on to the support letter, please do so HERE. 
• Testimony can be submitted online up until the work session (sometime on or after Feb. 25th). Submit testimony today. See directions HERE.
• If you are connected to any of the members of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, now is a great time to reach out to them and urge them to support LD 2141.
• We'll be following up with more information in our Legislative Alerts and more key contacts to reach out to in the legislature. Sign up for those HERE. 
  

We are working with members of the Lake Protection Coalition to reach out to committee members prior to the Work Session. At that session, the committee will discuss the bill, ask questions of each other and invited members of the public and topic experts, and at the end of the work session will likely vote to support or oppose. We will keep our advocacy page updated with progress and news.

Get Involved with LakeSmart in 2026

Sally and Ron Bancroft at Long Pond. Photo by: Russ Sabia

 Have you been thinking about starting a LakeSmart program at your lake?  

Would you like more information about what is involved?  

Now is a great time to reach out to our LakeSmart staff, to hear more about how the program works, volunteer training opportunities, and how to prepare for your first volunteer season. The LakeSmart program has a 20+ year history of educating homeowners about how to make their lakefront properties more lake friendly. We welcome the addition of your lake or pond community to the growing list of more than 65 lakes across the state currently hosting LakeSmart programs. 

• See a map of Active LakeSmart Lakes. 
•  Read more about LakeSmart’s 2025 Impact.
•  Visit the LakeSmart Webpage to learn more about the program. 
•  Check out our LakeSmart Brochure that has more details about how the program works  

Reach out to Andrea Stevens, LakeSmart Manager, at astevens@lakes.me FMI. 

Lake Conference: Lake Resilience in the Face of Change

The conference theme this year will be Lake Resilience in the Face of Change, and speakers will focus on ways we can adapt our shorelines (and our behaviors) to meet the changes that lay ahead. From climate to land-use to funding to demographic change, how can we best protect our lakes and make them resilient for an uncertain future?  


Registration will open on March 2nd. Look for a special edition e-news with links and a full announcement, as well as for a slate of fabulous speakers.

We hope to see you on June 12th, from 8:30-4 at the Wells Conference Center at the University of Maine at Orono.  


Too far to travel? Consider staying the night before (or the night after) at the Ursa Hotel, right on campus and within walking distance of the conference venue. We’ll have a block of rooms reserved at a discount. More information will be included with the registration announcement.  

EPA Funding Update

Edited from a news post from The Natural Resources Council of Maine

The U.S. House and Senate passed a bipartisan budget in January for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that largely avoids the drastic cuts proposed by the Trump Administration. While many environmental advocates in Maine said they appreciated the work to build a compromise, the EPA’s FY2026 budget will now be at an all-time low. 

At the same time, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is rolling out his promised “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history,” aimed at eliminating 31 environmental and public health protections. In January, the EPA announced it would stop considering the impact on human health when reviewing power plant pollution emissions and just yesterday the administration and agency rejected the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being. That means the agency can no longer regulate them. It's a devastating blow for clean air and clean water.

Maine’s Congressional delegation played an outsized role in negotiating the compromise spending package. Senator Susan Collins serves as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree sits on the House Appropriations Committee, serving as the Ranking Member for the Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment. Calls and emails from many of you helped reinforce the importance of clean lakes for all Mainers. 

A report released last year by the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) showed that the dramatic cuts originally proposed by the House’s Appropriations Committee would have severely scaled back funding for stormwater and wastewater improvements, 319 funding for nonpoint source pollution reduction and funding for the Department of Environmental Protection staff that help ensure compliance with federal environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act. 

Note that while 319 funding is not available in Maine in 2026, this is not due to EPA cuts. Rather, the timing of fund disbursement has changed so that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection felt the best way forward was to skip a year in order to be in line with the new disbursement schedule. 

We’ll continue to keep our eye on the federal budget process (with help from our friends at NRCM) and will reach out when there are actions to take on behalf of our lakes.  

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