Each fall, our membership congregates for one of my favorite events – our annual membership meeting. The event presents a great opportunity for members to come together to catch up with old friends, reminisce about the year that’s gone by and, importantly, look to the year ahead. This year, more than 90 members congregated at the Cross Center in Bangor for an action-packed two days.
On Monday, attendees elected a new slate of officers, re-elected board members who had reached the end of their three-year terms, received a briefing from our lobby team on the seemingly never-ending session that adjourned in late July, enjoyed presentations from guest speakers including Governor Mills, attended two manufacturing tours, bid generously at our annual banquet auction and finally, celebrated this year’s well-deserving annual award recipients.
As those who attended can attest, the event was a great success. Our Executive Committee and staff are thankful to this year’s presenters, tour hosts and sponsors for their hospitality and generosity. We also extend our congratulations to our newly elected leadership, Ben Carlisle of Prentis and Carlisle, Board President; Chris Fife of Weyerhaeuser, 1st Vice President; and Alex Ingraham of Pingree Associates, Secretary.
The information presented at this year’s annual meeting is included within this newsletter, and on our website.
While the period between the annual meeting and the new year is typically a slower time, this year is proving to be an exception with a number of legislative and regulatory processes playing out. A few include:
- The Board of Environmental Protection considered a petition submitted by NRCM to implement the California Advanced Clean Truck Rule in Maine. (Our public comment can be found here on our regulatory calendar.)
- The Board of Pesticides Control met to discuss potential changes from the EPA to the Vulnerable Species Pilot and the Herbicide Strategy.
- The Environment and Natural Resources Committee met for a discussion with the Department and others on the PFAS in products law. (The Portland Press Herald provided good coverage of this meeting)
- The DEP released a three-part draft of the rules to establish the EPR (extended producer responsibility) program. The public comment period runs through October 31 with a December 31 deadline for the department to initiate rules with the Board of Environmental Protection.
- The Legislature released the preliminary list of working bill titles for the Second Regular Session.
Additionally, a number of committees have been meeting in the interim to begin addressing the backlog of bills ahead of the Second Regular Session. Our team will continue to monitor the process on behalf of our membership.
On an administrative front, as many of you have seen, we have been in the process of reviewing applicants for our vacant Office Manager position. We are hoping to have the position filled soon so we can introduce our new staff member at the upcoming November board meeting at our headquarters on the 9th.
As always, if you have any questions about the contents of this newsletter, please feel free to reach out to me at pstrauch@maineforest.org, or to Krysta West at kwest@maineforest.org.
Pat