Friday, April 13, 2018

Letters to the Editor


Dear Editor,

I would like to thank Representative Patrick Corey for supporting LD 1444, a legislative bill that would have expanded on Community Solar Development and that would also eliminate CMP’s ability to charge a fee on solar energy generated and consumed behind customer’s meters in real time.

This common sense legislative bill won an easy 2/3rd majority in both the Senate and the House but was unable to overcome the Governor’s veto after the Governor leveraged his political power on House members and ultimately flipped seven votes from ‘Yes’ to ‘No’, which defeated the bill by two votes.

Thank you for having strong morals, for standing your ground, and for not succumbing to political pressure from those who lack a fundamental understanding of today’s modern and evolving energy landscape. Grid tied solar energy supports local jobs, moves Maine towards energy independence, and keeps more of our hard-earned money in our local economy; all while providing an unmatched economic and environmental return on investment.

I hope that you will continue to support sound solar policy into the future.

Thank you,
Geoff Sparrow
Windham Resident



Dear Editor,

On page 9 of the March 30, 2018 edition of The Windham Eagle newspaper, there appears an article regarding a news conference at Cooper’s Maple Products in Windham. The news conference included a speaker from Senator King’s office, a conservationist, and Andy Whitman, a forest scientist from Manomet.  

These people highlighted that climate change is affecting Sugar Maple trees in such a way that the sap season has dramatically changed, that sugar maple growth is “stunted”, and its normal range will basically move north, and that less desirable American Beech is increasing and replacing the Sugar Maple component of forest stands.  In conclusion, climate change may have horrifying effects on the Maple Syrup industry.

To date, predictions such as these resulting from global warming, now called climate change, have not come true. Of course, the reason the phenomenon name was changed to climate change is because the people measuring atmospheric conditions, (temperatures etc.) were caught falsifying data, because the resulting global warming charge was not being supported by their work.

Some politicians, Al Gore, and others, believe the solution to getting better control of our climate is done by the U. S. Government taking more of its people’s money, rights and freedoms. The real issue for Senator King is the spending cut to the EPA by the Trump administration. Climate change is one of many deceptive methods of convincing the people that we need to expand, not shrink government.
Cultural treatment by man has caused increased amounts of American Beech, not climate change.

This species is shade tolerant and will stay alive for many years in the understory, responding in growth to a timber harvest or openings created due to wind throw or an overstory tree death. In addition, when cut or even run over by a skidder, American Beech responds by putting out many sprouts from the bent stem, the stump and the roots. Very few other species are this prolific in sprouting.

I have tapped sugar maple trees and made maple syrup on a noncommercial basis since the middle 1960s. From experience I learned that we get about six weeks of sap run, no matter what date I begin tapping. The records I have kept since 2003 confirm this. The only trend my fifteen years of records show is that production levels and dates of the season vary up and down from year to year. For some fifty years or so, I have taped trees in the same general time period, late February-early March. Nothing has changed about production, as it goes up and down over time.  

I know my experience is no kind of study as referenced in the article, however, based on political motivation and the lack of honesty in “the climate change world”, I’ll stick to my 38 years of experience as a professional forester.

Gregory E. Foster
Consulting Forester    
Raymond
Republican Candidate for House Seat District #66   
 



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