Maine blueberries vs. fly: US senator files bill to help

By PATRICK WHITTLE
Associated Press

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine’s Republican senator is introducing legislation that calls on the federal government to step up research and prevention efforts for a pest that could jeopardize the state’s wild blueberry crop. Maine is the only state in the country with a significant harvest of wild blueberries, which are smaller cousins to the more ubiquitous cultivated blueberries. The berries are threatened by the spotted wing drosophila, a fruit fly from East Asia first detected in the U.S. in 2008. Sen. Susan Collins said Monday that she has submitted a bill to establish a fund of $6.5 million per year for five years to advance research and reduce the fly’s population.