tamarack

I think most of Maine's Nat Gas, at lease for points a ways north of PWM, comes thru the Maritimes corridor from the St. John, NB supertanker port. As for NIMBYs, at the Farmington public meeting about NECEC, attendees were overwhelmingly against it. (Same occurred in most other nearby towns.) Meanwhile, the state's biggest (by an order of magnitude) solar array is approaching completion in that town, and had only minor opposition.

Mills was apparently once against the corridor, perhaps because then-Governor LePage was head-over-heels in favor, though during her campaign for gov. she was up front in favor. LePage's enthusiasm led to an unconstitutional (according to a recent ruling from a Superior Court judge) act when he had Parks and Lands sign a lease with CMP for a section of NECEC on north public lot on West Forks. Constitutional amendment 164, passed 73%-27% by citizen referendum in 1993, states among other things that Bureau-managed lands involved in any lease issued by the Bureau of Public Lands (now Bureau of Parks and Lands) "may not be reduced [sold/traded] or its uses substantially altered except on the vote of 2/3 of all the members elected to each House." Perhaps anticipating an adverse reaction, Gov. LePage had the lease signed w/o consulting the legislature. (As Governor, he frequenting made or tried to make end runs around the legislature.) Current Governor Mills continued/enabled the process on her watch Opinions will differ, but changing the use from well-managed commercial forest to powerline R-O-W passes my smell test for "substantially altered". The retro part of the question aims to correct this apparently unconstitutional act. It's not much different from someone building illegally in a protection zone and then having to dismantle the structure at owner's expense. (Not infrequently, people do this under the "possession is nine-tenths of the law" philosophy.) Once a flatlander always a flatlander though. I've been 15 years now and I'm still one. Humorist Tim Sample once told of Chester Atwood (or some such made-up name) moved with his parents to Maine when he was 6 months old. All his adult life he was miffed that, even with his early arrival, he was never considered a native Mainer. When he died at the ripe old age of 97, his tombstone epilogue was "He was almost one of us" Personally, in my 48 years since moving up from NNJ I've only had one incident like that and it was from a State Senator with an axe to grind. Key seems to be never pretending that one is a native.

When we visited the kids, then living in DEC, over New Years in 2011-12, they were still harvesting greens from their cold frame when we left on Jan. 2. Decatur has less than half Boston's snow but runs 1.4° colder in met winter.

Peak here is now thru early next week, though the oaks remain green.

No frost here, yet, so just passed Oct. 6, 2011 as the latest 1st frost here. Until 2018-19 I'd have agreed with dryslot that Novie snow was good only for the deer chasers. In those two year continuous cover began on 11/10 and 11/11 respectively, and with short cloudy days some white cover mediates the early dark.

Should be near to slightly past peak, except for the abundant oaks in that area.

Red spruce and balsam fir. At that elevation they're probably more abundant than the maples and birches.

Was upper 30s by 10 last evening with bright stars above, so a frost seemed on the way. Mid 40s with sprinkles this morning. I think our first frost here comes a week or more down the road while we're visiting grandkids in SNJ.

Have you been up north to look? Reports/maps for Maine, compiled from observations by Maine Forest Service rangers and foresters statewide, point to a week or less late.

Its natural selection, thanks to genetics that produce different phenology within a species. As climate has warmed and cooled in the past, conditions in which, say, a sugar maple can survive and regenerate seedlings move up/down or north/south. A cooling climate would cause late frost damage to the maples which leaf out earliest, leaving the later leaf-outs (which are typical early droppers as well) to take over that site. A warming climate would allow the long-growing-season varieties to move up/north as their extra days of growth would make them more competitive. Trees grow where they can compete well and produce viable seed, and time sorts out which varieties are best suited to which site characteristics.

Only previous September without a frost was 2011, and it broke the schneid with 25° on 10/6. I don't think we'll have a frost until several days beyond that date.

September 2021 wx Avg temp: 58.57 +1.79 Avg max: 67.57 -0.43 High: 76 on the 18th, ties with several other years for least warm Sept high Avg.min: 49.57 +4.01 Low: 34 on the 29th, mildest Sept low and 2nd Sept (of 24) w/o a frost. The 18.00 avg diurnal range is the smallest for Sept. and the 3rd month this year setting a new smallest range, along with July and January. Precip: 5.13" +1.52" Greatest calendar day: 0.85" on the 15th. 9-10 total rom Ida was 1.50". YTD: 28.52" -5.88" 83% of average.

And would be most unlikely to be implemented unless there was already a human benevolent dictator in place, one who was willing to cede authority to machines.

More on water year trivia: Checked on water year peak flow dates for 4 Maine rivers - St. John, Kennebec, Sandy, Carrabassett. St. John was by far the most consistent, with 2% in March, 60% in April, 37% in May, plus August 1981. The other 3 were fairly similar to each other. By quarters: JAM: 15% AMJ: 52% (Top 3-months: 57% for MAM) JAS: 5% OND: 28% Although February was the least likely month for peak flow (only Carrabassett in the mega-mild Feb. 1981), JAS was by far the lowest in peak flows of any 3-month span. Other regions may have different timing regimes, but for that trio of rivers, Oct. 1 makes a natural break point.

Or maybe base the period's timing on averages? August 1955 must've really messed up the peak flow data in west/central SNE.

The most efficient form of government might be a benevolent dictatorship. Problem is that history shows such dictatorships never remain benevolent.

About 40% color here by eyeballing, heavier to yellows than reds. Unfortunately, near the house it's also 25% leaf drop.

For my records, it needs to be 32 or lower and there needs to be some frost/frozen dew on the vehicles. Unless 1st "frost" is accumulating snow. Never been even close to that happening.)

Don't know how September yellowjackets relate to winter severity, but in 2 consecutive Fort Kent winters the old "height from ground of hornet nests = height of snowpack" theory was refuted. Nests in 1982 were all 6-12 feet high and that was followed by the January when snow cover dropped to a single icy inch and winter's 24" max depth was lowest of my 10 winters there. In summer 1983 all the nests I saw were 6-24" off the ground, low enough to be destroyed by skunk attack. The following winter not only had the biggest snowfall of my experience (26.5") but was the only one in which pack exceeded my 61" snow stake. (In late summer 1984 I saw a huge hornet nest that probably started at 7-8 feet in a yellow birch sapling but had bent the tree over to the point where the nest was about waist high. Not sure what that might mean. )

Yesterday's 34 will be September's coldest, for our 2nd fall with 1st frost in October. 7 miles NNW in West Farmington close to the Sandy River, my wife had to scrape ice off the windshield. (She was staying overnight with a 93 y.o lady with health issues.) Color here is in the 30-50% range but leaf drop is way ahead of average as related to color.

A week either side of the average seems a valid range for fall color. I think spring leaf-out varies more. Last year there was barely anything greening up in mid-May and whatever buds had broken were not encouraged by the 5/9 snowfall. In 2010 everything was greening up with even the late starting white ash having 4-6" new shoots when they got blasted with low-mid 20s on 5/11. I'd guess those 2 years were at least 3 weeks apart in green-up, probably more.

Colors may be late in places, but late Sept/early Oct is indeed the average peak in the western Maine mts. When I was in northern Maine the average peak was the last week of September. We're running a bit late but within a week of average.

If "Yes" wins, the corridor is dead, pending all the lawsuits of course. To me, the first part in my earlier post intends to correct what was seemingly an unconstitutional lease approval by BPL - changing well-managed commercial forest to a powerline corridor sure passes my straight-face test as "substantially altering", and thus the lease should've been subject to the 2/3 majority in the legislature but instead was never submitted. (Leases that don't result in substantial alteration need no legislative approval.) And it's always confusing when voting yes means no. Many years back there was a referendum for local metered phone service, and my wife and I plus our staff biologist and his wife all had the same opinion but voted 2-2 due to the very confusing language. I find this whole affair very sad, as 33 of my 36 years in state employ was with BPL and those were great years working with great people. Now I see two people I call friends and for whom I have great respect, on opposite sides of the lawsuit challenging the lease, the BPL director whom I've worked with for 20+ years as he was formerly the forest specialist for the Maine Natural Areas Program, and my state senator, with whom I've worked on maple products from public lands (He has several thousand taps and strongly encourages more sugaring in Maine) and who was Maine's and the Northeast Region's tree farmer of the year in 2018.

Great field, too. I recall a 6-3 loss to the Jets (IIRC) in a howling SE rainstorm. John Stephens had about 175 yards rushing and got the Pats into the red zone during the final minute. However, the pond was ankle deep on that part of the field, making a figgie attempt near impossible especially into the 50 mph gusts, and they failed to convert the 4th down. When I'd tuned in during Q3 I wondered why the view was terrible - could hardly see the players in windblown rain/mist. Rod Rust, Victor Kiam, "Patriot missile" - consistent futility.

The whole winter was a bunch of whiplashes, some more violent than others. Farmington snowpack offers an illustration: Dec. 22: 32" after 22" in a week. Jan. 1: 24" after 10 days of meh, more settling than melting Jan. 13: 40" Jan. 28: 8" 3 cutters with temps 47-53, 4" RA. Biggest Jan melt-off on record there. Feb. 18: 21" Feb. 29: 7" more 50° and RA Mar. 9: 23" Mar. 24: Trace 6 days in the 50s.