Morning Update: What you need to know in Maine today

0 Rose kim agosto 04, 2026

A version of this story first appeared in the Morning Update newsletter. Sign up here to receive the Morning Update and other BDN newsletters directly in your inbox.

Good morning. We’ve got a big warmup ahead, with highs forecast to reach into the 90s by the end of the workweek.

After two years of planning and construction, Taste of Maine’s new potato chip factory has opened and its five flavors of chips hit shelves last week. So show your Maine pride and eat a bag of Aroostook potato chips, the perfect side for a summer lunch outside.

Maine’s new strategy to stop another insect disaster in the North Woods

Populations of spruce bud worms have exploded northern Maine, and it has disastrous implications for the North Maine Woods if the outbreak is not contained or eradicated. Credit: Leela Stockley / BDN Composite; Images courtesy of Neil Thompson

Insect specialists are taking a new approach to help eradicate a pest that could decimate the North Maine Woods.

The spruce budworm population, though native, is experiencing a boom that has affected hundreds of thousands of acres of Maine balsam fir and white spruce trees, which make up more than a third of the state’s forestland.

Instead of spraying everywhere an outbreak has been reported, more targeted efforts seek to quash concentrated populations of the budworm before they mature and reproduce. The last outbreak damaged more than half a million acres of northern Maine trees. But the early results of the more targeted effort, which began last year, are promising.

“They were getting towards areas where they could impact Maine,” state entomologist Allison Kanoti said. “The goal is to prevent a repeat of the 1970s and 1980s outbreaks.”