In 2021, the Maine Department of Transportation partnered with federal and state wildlife agencies to install a wide culvert designed to help turtles, including the endangered Blanding’s turtle, safely cross a notoriously deadly section of State Route 236 in Eliot. 

In the years since, tens of thousands of people have driven over this wildlife crossing, most of them unaware it is even there. And dozens of species, both shelled and non-shelled, have taken advantage of the underpass. 

During a presentation Tuesday, biologists at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife reported that the turtle tunnel — the first of its kind in Maine — is working. 

“There’s been a substantial reduction in turtle mortalities,” Greg LeClair, a municipal planning biologist at the state agency, told a small crowd gathered at the Eliot Town Office. “Follow-up surveys have shown much fewer turtles being crushed on that section of road.” 

Last summer, the Maine Department of Transportation deployed special game cameras equipped with a light beam that can detect the movement of small, slow-moving critters. Shortly after 9 a.m. on June 27, the camera trap snapped a photo of a Blanding’s turtle lumbering through the tunnel, safe from buzzing traffic along what one former state biologist called “a highway of death” for shelled reptiles. 

The 8-foot-wide, 6-foot-tall culvert connects wetlands on both sides of the busy state highway, including a nearly 100-acre section of conservation land managed by Great Works Regional Land Trust.

The wildlife underpass and roadside fencing, meant to steer wildlife toward the tunnel, cost approximately $400,000 to install, with Maine DOT contributing a large chunk of the funds to mitigate wetland disturbance from construction of the high-speed toll plaza on the Maine Turnpike in York. 

While the Eliot tunnel was designed with Blanding’s turtles in mind, Maine DOT has documented a slew of other creatures passing through, according to Justin Sweitzer, the agency’s environmental coordinator for southern Maine. Over a period of nearly five months, the cameras snapped more than 270 photos of wildlife in the tunnel, ranging from snapping turtles and salamanders to muskrats and mink.

Not one Blanding’s turtle has been found dead on the road since the crossing was installed, according to the department. A small number of snapping turtles and painted turtles have been killed.

Blanding’s turtles are rare in Maine, found only in York County and the southern part of Cumberland County. The state listed the species as threatened in 1986 and upgraded it to endangered in 1997. Habitat loss and road mortality are among the biggest threats to these reptiles.

Unlike some other turtle species, Blanding’s move around a lot in search of food, often traveling to six wetlands per year, according to Kevin Ryan, a reptile and amphibian biologist at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. 

“The closeness of the roads and the houses and the wetlands down in southern Maine means that throughout the course of its life, a turtle is going to come into contact with human infrastructure quite a bit,” Ryan said at Tuesday’s event. 

The life cycle of Blanding’s turtles makes recovery efforts particularly challenging. The yellow-throated reptiles can live to be over 70 years old, with females not reaching sexual maturity until 14 to 20 years of age and often taking decades to produce an offspring that ultimately reaches adulthood. 

“Losing one or two turtles actually matters,” Ryan said. “They’re not like a game species, something like a deer, rabbit, turkey, something like that, where a significant portion of the population can get harvested from year to year and then have it bounce right back.” 

Peter Egelston, chair of the Eliot Conservation Commission, told The Maine Monitor ahead of the event that there is a growing awareness in the community about the importance of preserving wildlife habitat. He noted that Eliot residents adopted an updated comprehensive plan in June that emphasizes natural resource protection and building new trails, among other things. 

“Communities are dealing with what seems like on the surface competing interests,” Egelston said. “There is a huge demand for housing. And yet there is also a huge desire to preserve open space. It’s one of the things that I think has caused a lot of communities to put a different shape to their approach to housing and zoning and so on, because in some ways what we really want to do is have the best of both worlds.” 

PORTLAND (WGME) – Maine State Police are helping Massachusetts police find a stolen antique truck last seen in Maine.

Police say the truck was stolen out of Ashland, Massachusetts, and was last seen towed into Maine on I-96 on Friday, January 23.

If you think you’ve seen the truck or know where it is, you’re encouraged to call 508-395-4526.

Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins says “enhanced” operations by Immigration and Custom Enforcement in Maine have ended.

In a news release, Collins says Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told her that the surge of ICE agents that began recently is over and that the agency will continue “normal operations that have been ongoing for many years.”

“While the Department of Homeland Security does not confirm law enforcement operations, I can report that Secretary Noem has informed me that ICE has ended its enhanced activities in the State of Maine,” Collins said in the release. “There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here.”

The announcement comes after Collins asked Noem earlier this week to pause its surge in Maine and Minnesota, saying both operations were too sweeping and indiscriminate.

Collins told Maine Public on Wednesday that she had received multiple calls from constituents expressing fear and anger about the ICE operation because it was sweeping up people who are here legally.

ICE’s surge has prompted fierce backlash over its tactics and conduct, which resulted in two agents shooting and killing two U.S. citizens protesting and monitoring its activities in Minnesota.

Noem has been heavily criticized for her role in those operations and her characterization of those who were killed by ICE agents. Last weekend’s killing of Alex Pretti has intensified that criticism and congressional Democrats have called for Noem’s impeachment. Two Republican U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, have also called for her removal.

The backlash has also prompted calls from Democrats to halt funding to DHS, the umbrella agency for ICE, until more accountability measures are put in place. Collins, the leading Republican on the Senate budget committee, has said she’s open to new proposals, but does not support halting funding for the agency because it also includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The controversy over the surge of ICE agents has also become a significant factor in Collins’ re-election bid. The two leading Democrats vying to replace her, Gov. Janet Mills and Graham Platner, have heavily criticized Collins for not doing enough to curtail the operations and her support for continuing funding for DHS.

Collins’ announcement about ICE operations in Maine was followed by an announcement by White House border czar Tom Homan that the agency would decrease the force deployed to Minnesota as long as officials there cooperate to assist in the apprehension of illegal immigrants with criminal records. Homan said much of that cooperation centers on jails and working with ICE to apprehend illegal immigrants there rather than on the streets.

“More (agents) in the jail means less people in the streets,” he said.

Homan was dispatched to Minnesota to take over operations after ICE agents shot and killed Pretti. He said during a press conference Thursday that operations will target illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Homan was asked about a force drawdown in Maine, but he did not directly answer.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request to confirm Collins’ announcement. The agency has not said how many additional agents it has deployed to Maine during the surge and it’s unclear how many operate here during normal operations.

The agency has previously said that 200 arrests have been made in Maine and that it had more than 1,400 individuals targeted for detainment.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, said in a statement that she could not independently confirm the end of the surge, citing the lack of information from DHS and Noem.

“If these enhanced operations have in fact ceased, that may reduce the visible federal presence in our state,” she said. “But I think it is important that people understand what we saw during this operation: individuals who are legally allowed to be in the United States, whether by lawful presence or an authorized period of stay, following the rules, and being detained anyway.”

She added, “That is not limited to this one operation. That has been the pattern of this Administration’s immigration enforcement over the past year, and there is no indication that policy has changed.”