Help develop Sierra Club Maine's priorities and strategies while enjoying a stay at the lovely Bethel Inn.
Planning/Training Retreat Set For December 6-8
 This is the perfect event to get acquainted with fellow Sierra Club Maine volunteers and to get more involved in the important work of the Chapter.
Our December 6-8 retreat will feature volunteer leadership training and planning sessions where you can help with chapter priorities and develop strategies for our important work in 2020. There will be plenty of time for outdoor activities or just kicking back and enjoying the full-service resort facilities of the wonderful Bethel Inn.
The Bethel Inn’s 200-acre campus-like setting, far removed from urban distractions, is the ideal venue with a perfect balance of productivity and recreation. Besides dining facilities and superior rooms, other amenities include health club, sauna, heated indoor/outdoor pool and whirlpool area.
Partners and families welcome!
We've kept the prices reasonable to encourage all members who would like a more active role with Sierra Club Maine to join us for the day, an overnight, or the weekend! We don’t want finances to be an obstacle to volunteering and leading our chapter. Scholarships are available. Donations to that fund are greatly appreciated.
For pricing information on rooms and meals and to RSVP click here. Once you RSVP, we'll contact you to answer your questions and to provide information on completing the registration process. Or, if you prefer, call the Chapter office directly at 761-5616. To help with our planning, please let us know as soon as possible if you are thinking of attending. For those who are interested but cannot attend, video conferencing is available.
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Help Set 2020 Chapter Legislative Priorities
Legislative Team meeting set for November 15 in Portland.
 Sierra Club Maine is holding its Legislative Team meeting on Friday, November 15th from 5 pm to 7 pm (meet and greet starts at 5 pm).
This will be an opportunity to prepare for the next legislative session in January, and prioritize any new bills. We will also go over opportunities to effectively participate in the process (e.g. testimony, media, meetings with legislators, etc.), especially for the newer volunteers.
We’ll gather in our building's conference room on the 2nd Floor of 565 Congress Street, Portland. There is free parking available at the Spring Street Parking Garage (between Free St. and Spring St.). Just bring your ticket into the meeting, and we’ll give you punch tickets. Pizza will be provided. Please bring beverages to share. If you cannot attend in person, video conferencing is available.
Please RSVP here. For more information contact Matt at matthew.cannon@sierraclub.org or call the Chapter office at 761-5616.
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Megadams Equals Megadamage Tour Will be in Plymouth on Thanksgiving Week
Indigenous community members will share the struggles to protect their land and waters from large-scale hydropower.
 The North American Megadam Resistance Alliance will be holding its third annual “Megadams Equals Megadamage” Northeast U.S. Tour for First Nation community members on November 24-25 at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Many First Nation community members will be traveling over a thousand miles from their homes to share their years-long struggle to protect their land and waters from destructive Canadian hydropower.
The speakers will also voice their experiences at the 50th National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, MA on Thanksgiving Day.
Electricity from Canadian megadams is being marketed as “renewable” and carbon-free energy throughout New England. However, as the tour’s speakers will explain, it is anything but that.
The tour also serves as a challenge to electrical transmission projects such as the New England Clean Energy Connect project that is set to tear through Maine bringing dirty Canadian hydropower to Massachusetts. Thousands of square miles of First Nations territory have been dammed and flooded over the last 40 years to supply U.S. markets. Large dams such as Hydro-Quebec’s Romaine 4 dam which generates 245 megawatts of electricity at a height of 292 feet, are now being built and the 2,250 MW Gull Island dam in Labrador is approved and ready to go.
Sierra Club and its allies have opposed large hydropower dams for decades. In 1998, a group called “No Thank Q Hydro-Quebec” helped defeat the proposal to bring hydropower through Maine. The Club also played a key role in the 2019 defeat of the Northern Pass hydropower corridor through the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire.
More information about the tour will be available soon. See here for updates. Please join us on November 24 in Plymouth!
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Army Corps of Engineers to Hold Public Hearing on CMP Project on December 5
The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has announced it will hold a December 5 public hearing on Central Maine Power's (CMP) proposed transmission corridor project that would transmit Hydro-Quebec electric power through Maine en route to Massachusetts. The hearing will be held at 4 p.m. at the Ramada Inn in Lewiston.
In it's public notice the USACE stated: "The purpose of the hearing is to acquire information or evidence which will be considered in evaluating a proposed permit action and to afford the public with an opportunity to present their views, opinions, and information on such permit action." Click here to read the complete public notice.
Sierra Club Maine has presented written testimony in opposition to the CMP project to the ACE. To read the Chapters comments click here.
We encourage members to attend the December 5 hearing and to consider providing in-person or written comments to the ACE.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Film Showing
Tomorrow
Friday November 8—6:30 p.m.
York Public Library
15 Long Sands Rd, York, ME
 Tomorrow is a documentary film showcasing alternative and creative ways of viewing agriculture, economics, energy, and education.
The film offers constructive solutions for action on a local level that will make a difference on a global level. It identifies initiatives that have proven themselves in 10 countries around the world: concrete examples of solutions to environmental and social challenges of the 21st century.
Tomorrow won the 2016 César Award for Best Documentary Film.
The showing is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.
Greg Norris Talk in York
Tuesday, November 12 —7 p.m.
York Public Library
Event Organizer: Edward Mcabee macmcabee5@gmail.com
We often hear about our negative impact on the earth, our environmental footprint. But footprints are only half the picture. Greg Norris calls the other half a handprint. We create a handprint every time we take an action, however small, that promotes environmental health. We make a handprint simply by changing the way we do things, at home and at work.
Greg will introduce you first to your environmental footprint: what it means and where it comes from. Then he will make you aware of your powerful potential to create handprints—positive changes in the world. Come ready to learn. You have way more power than you think.
Belfast Meatless Monday Potluck
Monday, December 16
Join us on December 16 for the first of our monthly Meatless Monday potlucks at Bev Roxby’s home in Belfast. Dairy is OK for the first dinner—after that we'll try to get lower on the food chain. We also encourage locally grown or produced foods.
We'll gather to talk and eat at 6 pm. Our discussion will include Maine Chapter activities and the opportunities to take action. Following that, we’ll have a conversation about how to get through to climate deniers and how to get past anti-environmental messaging. Bring your ideas! Space is limited to 12 people. RSVP Bev Roxby at beverlyteach@gmail.com by December 13 if you'd like to attend. And let us know what food you'd like to bring.
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