Feds to send $69M for Maine’s climate-resilience projects
Photo collage / Courtesy, NOAA
A photo collage shows some of the projects recommended for climate-resilience funding.
The federal government said Thursday it will award $69 million to a Maine initiative aimed at making the state’s coast more resilient to climate change and other hazards.
The project is called Resilient Maine, and was proposed by the Maine Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future. Among the work that's planned:
- Supporting underserved, rural and tribal communities in the development and implementation of climate adaptation strategies;
- Expanding the availability and use of technical assistance tools and training focused on flood risk, saltwater intrusion, bluff stability and living shorelines;
- Updating the state’s regulatory framework to support climate resilience;
- Conducting demonstration projects that incentivize regional collaboration and nature-based solutions;
- Strengthening the climate resilience of vulnerable public infrastructure and working waterfronts.
The goal is to help underserved communities in Maine develop and implement new ways of protecting themselves from flooding, storm surge and extreme weather events.
The money, administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will come from the federal government’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge, a competitive, $575 million program funded through the Inflation Reduction Act.
Front lines
“Maine is on the front lines of the climate crisis, and our working waterfronts continue to bear the brunt of its devastating impacts,” said U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine 1st District.
“As a rural state with nearly 500 towns, the longer-term components of this funding will significantly advance work to engage in those communities who need to increase their resilience, but don’t currently have the capacity to do it.”
The federal program is focused on investing in projects that create climate solutions by storing carbon; building resilience to coastal hazards such as extreme weather events, pollution and marine debris; restoring coastal habitats that help wildlife and humans thrive; building the capacity of underserved communities and supporting community-driven restoration; and providing employment opportunities.
“Whether its extreme storms like we had this past winter, heat waves or ocean acidification, we are already living through the impacts of climate change here in Maine,” said U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine.
In December 2023 and January 2024, storms in Maine caused $90 million of damage to public infrastructure and killed four people.
The project builds on existing activities that include increasing participation in the Community Resilience Partnership, which provides communities with climate technical assistance and funding.
Nature-based solutions
To increase the ability of Maine communities to adapt to a changing climate, the state is expanding the availability of technical tools and technical assistance. The effort includes incentivizing resilient designs with an emphasis on nature-based solutions, and positive changes to the state’s land-use and permitting regulations.
The development of “shore corps stewards” will provide trained individuals to help communities implement nature-based adaptation solutions.
Several nature-based demonstration projects will be conducted, including living shoreline projects, as well as regionally significant coastal resilience projects on the Popham Peninsula in Southern Maine and in the West Branch of the Pleasant River in Downeast Maine.
Working waterfronts
With 3,500 miles of tidal coastline, Maine has the fourth-longest coast in the continental U.S. Most of the state’s population lives in the coastal zone, and the coast represents an important economic engine for the state.
Funding will support a full-time position that works with coastal municipalities and tribes to determine commercial fishing access needs; prepare Maine for working waterfront investments; and help municipalities and tribes acquire funds allocated to improve waterfront infrastructure for the public and commercial fisheries and aquaculture needs.
Additional activities include providing assistance to coastal communities and working waterfronts that need help addressing climate threats related to maintenance, protection, funding and engineering support.
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