Funded by developers' fees, state program awards $3.7M for conservation
Courtesy / Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program
The Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program this week announced a $3.7 million round of grants designed to offset the environmental impact of development.
A state conservation program that offsets the impact of development on Maine's environment has recently awarded the largest round of grants in the program's 10-year history.
The Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program issued $3.7 million in grants for 19 initiatives to restore, enhance or protect wetlands and other important habitats around the state, according to a news release.
The program, a collaboration between the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is funded by the in-lieu fees developers often pay when their projects threaten wetlands. The fees are collected by the DEP and transferred to the Natural Resource Conservation Fund. Public agencies and nonprofit conservation organizations apply, through a competitive process, to use the funds for restoration and preservation of aquatic resources and their uplands in the same region of the state as the developers' projects.
The Nature Conservancy administers the program on behalf of the DEP and the Corps, but the nonprofit group does not have a say in which conservation efforts are funded.
Initiatives awarded funding in this round include brook trout habitat restoration in Downeast Maine, a wildlife road crossing improvement project in Eliot, and conservation of high-value wetlands at sites in Frenchville, Hancock, Kingfield, Orono, Mount Vernon, New Gloucester and York, among others. In all, the funds will help restore or enhance almost 25 acres and help conserve another 3,000 acres.
Recipients of this year's funding include Orono Land Trust, Frenchman Bay Conservancy, Atlantic Salmon Federation, Three Rivers Land Trust, Bangor Land Trust, The Trust for Public Land, 7 Lakes Alliance, York Land Trust, Western Foothills Land Trust, Falmouth Land Trust, Great Works Regional Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, Maine Department of Transportation, Loon Echo Land Trust, Upper St. John River Organization, the Town of Wells, and Royal River Conservation Trust.
The Natural Resource Conservation Program “has become one of Maine’s most important tools for conservationists and developers to work together to protect fragile wetland habitats,” DEP Commissioner Jerry Reid said in the release. “It’s a win for Maine’s natural environment, and it’s win for Maine’s economy.”
Jay Clement, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Maine Project Office, praised the program, saying it “has a long-established successful track record and continues to offer developers greater predictability and streamlining in both state and federal wetland permitting processes. The partnerships established between regulatory and resource agencies and statewide conservation groups in the implementation of this vital program yield significant environmental benefits for the state of Maine.”
In all, more than 120 projects across Maine have been funded since the program began in 2009.
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