The Woods

The Golden Road Brought “Tectonic Change” to the Maine Woods | Down East Magazine

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The Golden Road Brought “Tectonic Change” to the Maine Woods | Down East Magazine

Broad, perfectly crowned, elegantly graded, and topped in crushed stone, the Golden Road is an expressway of a logging road, with nary a 10-degree turn along its 96 miles. After arcing northwest from Millinocket to the southern edge of Baxter State Park, it runs alongside the West Branch of the Penobscot, past Chesuncook Lake, then follows the North Branch to the border with Quebec at Saint-Zacharie. It’s a key artery in what’s likely the nation’s largest private-road system, offering easy access to Maine’s north woods to anyone with even a decent sedan.

NPR

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A wind energy company has pleaded guilty after killing at least 150 eagles : NPR

building the wind farms in New Mexico and Wyoming that they would kill birds, but it proceeded anyway and at times ignored advice from federal wildlife officials about how to minimize the deaths, according to court documents.

"For more than a decade, ESI has violated (wildlife) laws, taking eagles without obtaining or even seeking the necessary permit," said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division in a statement.

ESI agreed under a plea agreement to spend up to $27 million during its five-year probationary period on measures to prevent future eagle deaths. That includes shutting down turbines at times when eagles are more likely to be present.