Mainebiz

V O L . X X I I N O. V I I A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 6 6 Record $5.65B in tourism revenue Travel packages with a focus on outdoor recreation helped drive a 13% gain in Maine's tourism last year, tourism offi - cials said recently. Recreation was sin- gled out as having the greatest increase in direct tourism spending, making a jump from $447.5 million in 2014 to $505.7 million in 2015, according to the Portland Press Herald. Overall, tourism revenue was $5.65 billion. e fi ndings were released at the Maine Offi ce of Tourism's annual conference, held at Sunday River Resort. Total visitation last year rose 2.9%, from 32.9 million visits in 2014 to 33.9 million. e rise in visitation also brought an increase in lodging sales, generating $1.65 billion last year, up from $1.51 billion. Beekeeping a buzzing business in '15 Maine's honey production grew by 25%, to 470,000 pounds, last year, the USDA reported. e USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service also reported that the number of licensed beekeepers in the state tripled over the past decade. State apiarist Tony Jadczak reported that 975 resident beekeepers registered 9,789 hives last year, and that 76,058 hives entered the state for crop pollination, down from 83,000 in 2014. N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded a total of $3.7 million to community health centers across Maine, including Fish River Rural Health, Eagle Lake, $1.6 million; DFD Russell Medical Center, Leeds, $1.1 million; and Eastport Healthcare, Eastport, $1.1 million. The department also awarded $1.2 million to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to help advance interventions for preventing prescription drug overdoses. Catholic Charities Maine's Parish Social Ministry announced that six parishes will receive grants totaling $18,550 from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Recipients included St. Brendan the Navigator in Camden, St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Calais, St. Mary of the Visitation in Houlton, St. Michael's in Augusta, St. Rose of Lima in Jay and St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Bangor. The organization also said its Hunger & Relief Services program received a $39,559 grant from Catholic Charities USA as part of the national organiza- tion's efforts to fund activities that expand outreach to rural communities. Congress Square redesign effort names nalists Portland's Planning & Urban Devel- opment Department has announced that it has narrowed the fi eld down to four design teams as fi nalists for the Congress Square Redesign Project, after receiving a dozen submissions for the ambitious downtown public space redesign project. e four fi nalist design teams are: CRJA – IBI of Boston; Michael Boucher Landscape Architec- ture of Freeport; Terry DeWan & Asso- ciates of Yarmouth with Olin Studio of Philadelphia; and WRT of Philadelphia. Finalists now face interviews with the selection committee, a site visit and a public presentation. ey will also par- ticipate in a free public forum on May 4 at the Portland Museum of Art. 'Challenging retail' climate stalls L.L.Bean sales L.L.Bean reported sales for the fi scal year ended Feb. 28 totaled $1.6 billion, fl at when compared to the previ- ous year. Still, the board approved a performance bonus equal to 3% of annual pay for 5,900 eligible employees. "L.L.Bean has performed well given a challenging retail environment," said President and CEO Steve Smith, who was named in November and joined the company in February. In addition to its 220,000-square-foot fl agship location in Freeport, it has 30 stores outside of Maine. A year ago, it announced plans to reach 100 stores by 2020. In com- ing months, it will open stores at the Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach, Va.; the Mall at Partridge Creek in Clinton Township, Mich.; and the Garden City Center in Cranston, R.I. N O T E W O R T H Y S O U T H E R N Cliff House Resort & Spa, at 591 Shore Road in Ogunquit, will reopen July 1 after a major renovation. The 166-room hotel, which dates to 1872, was acquired B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state S T A T E W I D E S O U T H E R N Impact of budworm outbreak could reach $800M A task force created to prepare for another epidemic of the eastern spruce bud- worm — which destroyed up to 21% of Maine's fi r trees during the last major infestation almost 40 years ago — has released a report with 70 recommenda- tions intended to minimize the impact when a new outbreak occurs. The stakes are high. According to the report released March 16, the economic impact in Maine is pegged at $794 million per year during a severe outbreak and $397 million per year for a moderate outbreak. Gov. Paul LePage emphasized it's not a matter of if the pest returns to Maine but when. "We are on the verge of another spruce budworm epidemic and our goal is to lessen its damage," LePage said at a news conference highlighting the fi nd- ings of the Maine Spruce Budworm Task Force, which was led by Robert Wagner, director of the Cooperative Forestry Research Unit at the University of Maine; Patrick Strauch, executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council; and Doug Denico, director of the Maine Forest Service. The report found that the eastern spruce budworm, whose populations typi- cally reach epidemic scale every 30 to 60 years, is steadily moving southward from Quebec, where 15.6 million acres of forests were defoliated in 2015, and is now spreading into New Brunswick. "Severe defoliation is within 50 miles of Maine's border," said Dave Struble, state entomologist. "We are at the start of an outbreak. We don't know how bad it will be or exactly where, but we are seeing a build-up of budworm populations here." Here's why the threat of another major spruce budworm infestation in Maine matters, according to the task force's report: ¡ Up to 5.8 million acres of spruce-fi r stands in Maine's forest, containing 27.3 million cords of harvestable balsam fi r, are at risk of defoliation. ¡ The projected total volume loss over 40 years following an outbreak, accord- ing to a 2013 model analyzing the potential impact, ranges from 6.4 million cords for a moderate outbreak to 12.7 million cords from a severe outbreak. ¡ Economic impact of those volume losses could range from $397 million to $794 million. ¡ Job losses could total 1,196 jobs for a severe outbreak and 598 jobs for a moderate outbreak. The report includes about 70 recommendations, including increasing moni- toring efforts, applying pesticides where appropriate, changing forest manage- ment strategies and seeking ways to pre-salvage trees that likely would be lost once the infestation begins. "The budworm threat remains the same [as Maine's outbreak in the 1970s and 1980s], but a lot of other things have changed," says Strauch. "Our industry is governed by the Forest Practices Act now, pesticides are highly regulated and far more expensive, and there's much less state and federal funding available." — J A M E S M C C A R T H Y P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y M A I N E F O R E S T S E R V I C E The eastern spruce budworm, which destroyed up to 21% of Maine's fi r trees during the last major infestation almost 40 years ago, is once again a looming threat.

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