Lori Valigra

BDN

The fungus that could save Maine's trees one seedling at a time

By: Lori Valigra

Researchers walking through the forest during a major spruce budworm outbreak in the 1990s discovered some healthy fir trees unaffected by the deadly pests, and wondered what gave them apparent immunity.

The Maine Monitor/Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting

Maine's new strategy to stop another insect disaster in the North Woods

By: Lori Valigra

After a 26-year outbreak devastated Maine's forests, the state is testing a targeted attack on spruce budworms invading from Quebec.

BDN

Maine's biggest dam owner faces reckoning after another Penobscot River fish kill

By: Lori Valigra

The fish die-off that followed a Penobscot River dam shutdown in July rallied calls for stiffer regulations on the dam's owner, which has been

The Maine Monitor/Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting

Maine dam owner faces reckoning after Penobscot River fish kill

By: Lori Valigra

Brookfield Renewable is in the final stages of relicensing the Ripogenus Dam, located about 30 miles west of Millinocket.

BDN

The family that fought a Maine landfill leaves their town behind

By: Lori Valigra

Five years after Debbie Cooper lost her fight against one of Maine’s most important landfills, her son's family is also leaving Hartland.

BDN

Juniper Ridge wants to treat its toxic runoff 20 miles away

By: Lori Valigra

The operators of the Juniper Ridge Landfill alarmed environmental and community groups earlier this month with plans to move a proposed PFAS treatment

The Maine Monitor/Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting

Juniper Ridge wants to treat its contaminated wastewater 20 miles away

By: Lori Valigra

Juniper Ridge Landfill plans to move its PFAS treatment system off-site, requiring leachate to be trucked 20 miles to Hampden.

BDN

Waste buried in the woods shows how hard it is to rehab Maine's abandoned factories

By: Lori Valigra

HARTLAND, Maine — On a sunny day here in late August, Judy Pease surveyed the parking lot behind a former building at the now-defunct tannery where she worked for nearly 30 years.

The Maine Monitor/Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting

Buried waste shows difficulty of rehabbing abandoned factories

By: Lori Valigra

What does it take to bring an abandoned factory to life? In Hartland, it starts by cleaning up asbestos, PCBs and buried hides nobody can say who owns.

BDN

Penobscot dam owner replaces faulty poles on line where July failure killed fish

By: Lori Valigra

The owner of the Penobscot River dam that shut down in July after a transmission crossarm broke and likely killed thousands of fish said it is replacing faulty poles along the 30-mile power line.