Change to Maine airport habitat bill causes bafflement

Change to Maine airport habitat bill causes bafflement

After over an hour of back-and-forth between lawmakers and environmental regulators at a work session in February, Maine state Sen. Denise Tepler (D-Sagadahoc) began to question the intentions of a bill that would loosen habitat protections near municipal airports in the name of aviation safety. A Maine wildlife official had just testified that the bill, L.D. 138, was the first indication his agency received that habitat protections were putting…