Natural Resources Council Inc

Programs: Climate and clean energy - with nrcm's leadership, maine has made strong progress to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, cut carbon pollution, and address climate change. Civic engagement and public outreach are at the heart of nrcm's strategies to advance clean air and clean energy. Our work is critical to reducing health and environmental problems affecting our state, including high asthma rates, ocean acidification, rising sea levels that threaten coastal communities, and changes to vital ecosystems. This year nrcm joined with the conservation law foundation in a legal appeal of new rules approved by the maine public utilities commission (puc) to phase out net metering for homeowners and businesses that have solar power. We want the court to overturn the rules that not only gets rid of net metering (the policy that reimburses people for excess energy sent to the electrical grid) but also charges homeowners and businesses with solar panels for the power they make and use themselves. This new and unfair "tax"-known as gross metering-will deter citizens and businesses from installing solar power and harm statewide efforts to reduce fossil fuel use and expand renewable energy sources. A ruling is pending at this time. Simultaneously, nrcm led another effort to boost solar energy in maine. We engaged communities; created case studies, videos, and factsheets to educate people about the benefits of solar; and worked closely with solar industry leaders, a bipartisan group of policy makers, and our solar coalition, which includes non-traditional allies such as the maine municipal association and maine farm bureau. We sought approval of a proposal to stop gross metering from taking effect and to allow up to 50 households to join in a community solar farm (the current limit is 10). The bill passed with strong support, but the governor vetoed it. Nrcm also reached out to citizens, opinion leaders, and businesses in ellsworth, maine to launch a community-based weatherization initiative. Our goal was to broker bulk purchasing for the community that would take advantage of efficiency maine (em) programs and use best practices identified by our allies at the island institute, northern forest center, and the new england grassroots environment fund. Through our outreach and relationship building, we secured buy-in from community leaders and began the project this spring.

communications - nrcm communicates with our members, supporters, policy makers, and the public using email updates and calls to action, community meetings and events, single issue reports, direct mail, radio, videos, social media, and our website. These diverse tools support our mission and advance our work in each of our issue areas. The nrcm website, www. Nrcm. Org, is an especially critical tool to reach people with facts and information about our work. A redesign of our website in early 2017 made it completely mobile-responsive, and linked it with our online action alert system so it is easy for people to take action via their mobile devices and tablet computers. More than 35% of users now access our website using a mobile device. Other popular communication tools are nrcm's facebook, instagram, and twitter pages, which in recent years have seen significant growth in the numbers of people regularly engaging with these sites. Our printed newsletter, maine environment is also extremely popular. The newsletter is sent to member households three times per year, and features updates on current environmental issues, upcoming special events, and a special column by nrcm chief executive officer lisa pohlmann. As a result of these tools and our efforts to continually improve our communications, we have developed a loyal network of more than 20,000 supporters and activists in maine and around the country.

emerging issues - maine state house nrcm is maine's top environmental watchdog. Performing within the allowable lobbying limits for a 501(c)3, nrcm monitors issues related to each of our programs as well as emerging environmental issues that could impact maine's forests, waters, wildlife and community health. Additionally, we represent environmental interests at the maine legislature, and before state agencies responsible for managing our state's natural resources. These include the department of environmental protection, the land use planning commission, and the public utilities commission.

forests & wildlife - maine's forests are home to rare and iconic plants and animals, and support jobs in maine's forest products and outdoor recreation economies. Nrcm promotes land conservation, and advocates for well-planned development that does not fragment fish and wildlife habitats. We also promote the sustainable management of timber and other forest resources, and encourage people to get outside and enjoy the beauty of maine's environment. On august 24, 2017, nrcm and our partners celebrated the one-year anniversary of the katahdin woods and waters national monument (kww), established by president barack obama on 87,500 acres of beautiful lands in maine's north woods. For more than five years, nrcm led the grassroots education and outreach effort that secured support from citizens in the region and across maine for conservation of this spectacular landscape. We consider the designation of kww one of our top accomplishments in our nearly 60-year history. In conjunction with the anniversary event, we developed a new publication, katahdin woods and waters - our monument, our community: voices from the region to feature local opinions about kww and its impact. We also continued to promote kww via letters to the editor and opinion articles; our webpage featuring how to visit the national monument and where to stay; and social media about the businesses being created or benefitting from kww. In early 2018 we learned from the national park service (nps) that 30,000 people from 45 states and nine countries visited kww in 2017! In addition, nrcm worked with 100 katahdin area residents to comment on recreational uses at four national park service (nps) land management planning meetings, and we helped recruit the professional team that will work with nps to develop the official land management plan. Nrcm also helped the friends of katahdin woods and waters create an interpretive map and guide to the kww "loop road"; design their business membership program and solicit businesses; and create policies and procedures that will guide the group in the future. Simultaneously, nrcm testified before the maine land use planning commission (lupc) and mobilized public support in favor of retaining the adjacency principle, a core land use planning tool that requires that new development occur within one mile of existing, compatible development. This helps to ensure infrastructure and services are well-planned, direct development toward town centers, and protect wildlife habitat from sprawl. We also followed a lupc review of a "concept plan" for development proposed by j. D. Irving woodlands (maine's largest landowner). The proposal would rezone 51,000 acres of land around the fish river chain of lakes for residential, commercial and industrial development. This area of maine is internationally known for its wild brook trout population and special recreational experiences. Nrcm is working to encourage more conservation in mitigation of any development that may be approved by lupc. Healthy waters: maine's rivers, lakes, and streams are among our state's most precious and celebrated natural resources. Our waterways offer food for fish, birds, and wildlife, drinking water for communities, and they support fishing, paddling, and other recreational businesses. Since our founding, nrcm has worked to decrease water pollution, restore free-flowing rivers, and improve native fish passage. Nrcm led efforts to secure a major breakthrough in protecting clean water and maine taxpayers from the threat of mining pollution. Because of our outreach, citizen engagement, and advocacy, the maine legislature voted to pass, and override a governor's veto, ld 870 an act to protect maine's clean water and taxpayers from mining pollution. Now, maine has the most protective mining law in the country. It bans mining in, on, or under public lands, lakes, outstanding rivers, coastal wetlands, and high-value freshwater wetlands. It also requires mining companies to pay enough money up-front to cover a worst-case mining disaster. After five years of intense work on this issue, we are proud to have achieved such a huge win for maine's environment and people. Nrcm also monitored the ongoing cleanup of the holtrachem site on the penobscot river in orrington, maine, where mercury and chloropicrin, a potent chlorine-based insecticide and wwi chemical weapon, were dumped for decades. A 2010 ruling by the maine supreme judicial court requires that mallinckrodt, the current owner of the site, remove contaminated soil and properly remediate a network of sewers. But the cleanup process has been slow, and the maine department of environmental protection (dep) has not fully enforced the ruling. Nrcm will continue to review dep documents obtained through freedom of access act (foaa) requests, watchdog the cleanup progress, and rally public and media attention as needed to hold mallinckrodt accountable and ensure they do not cut corners. Nrcm is a founding partner of the penobscot river restoration trust (prrt), the successful decades-long project that reconnected endangered atlantic salmon, shortnose sturgeon, american shad, alewife, and seven other native sea-run fish to 2,000 miles of spawning habitat in the penobscot watershed, without losing an important source of power generation. Prrt is delivering large-scale ecological, cultural, recreational, and economic benefits throughout the watershed, and we will continue to measure these benefits in the years to come. Sustainable maine: nrcm has helped maine phase out toxic chemicals in consumer products. We have also spearheaded the development of maine's landmark recycling programs for products that pose a risk to our environment and public health. Now, we offer education and hands-on training to citizens' groups and communities to adopt local policies that reduce waste and toxics in the environment, increase recycling and organic composting, and boost the production and use of clean and efficient energy. This year, nrcm expanded upon our past success and helped more communities adopt ordinances to ban or put a fee on single-use plastic bags. To date fifteen towns (portland, south portland, cape elizabeth, york, saco, kennebunk, falmouth, freeport, topsham, brunswick, bath, belfast, blue hill, rockland, and manchester) collectively representing 17% of maine's population have adopted bag policies to reduce plastic pollution that harms fish and birds, and ends up in maine's landfills. We are currently supporting citizen-led efforts to ban bags and polystyrene foam in bethel, waterville, damariscotta, bar harbor, and ellsworth. With enough local policies, maine businesses and state leaders will desire consistency and support a statewide ban on reusable bags and polystyrene foam packaging. Nrcm also supported efforts to reduce food waste in maine through a proposal to increase liability protections for food donors, create a tax credit for farmers that donate to food pantries, and establish a task force to develop guidance to reduce food waste in homes, businesses, and schools. From this work, a stakeholder group came together to examine ways to reduce food waste and food insecurity, and increase composting. We helped recruit stakeholders from food pantries, restaurant and grocer trade groups, farmers, scholars, policy makers, conservationists, and composting and waste hauling businesses. All participants agreed that maine needs to reduce food waste in schools. Ultimately, the state adopted a plan for the dep to provide guidance to help reduce food waste in schools, institutions, and municipal buildings. Nrcm also worked directly with eight k-12 schools in various parts of maine to begin food waste separation and create school gardens and composting programs. Reducing food waste saves taxpayers thousands of dollars and protects the environment. Federal policy: nrcm's federal policy project cultivates and mobilizes public and business support to urge maine's congressional leaders to stand up for the health and well-being of maine people and oppose federal environmental rollbacks. Nrcm produces reports on issues such as the budget of the environmental protection agency (epa), generates group sign-on letters, produces compelling print ads, and organizes both high volume and high quality communications to maine's senators. This year we organized support for the epa budget, the endangered species act, the clean water rule, and the clean power plan. This is a burgeoning part of our work and we are finding more and more people want to speak up on issues at the federal level that impact maine.