News & Announcements
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July 22 , 2006
Project Coordinator Contact:
Stewart Fefer
(stewart_fefer@fws.gov;
207-781-8364 x17)
Two million dollars in federal funds to Maine to support habitat protection partnerships
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Gulf of Maine Coastal Program is delighted to announce that the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) Grant program awarded nearly two million dollars to support two habitat protection initiatives in coastal Maine this week.
One grant was awarded to support habitat protection efforts along the shores of the Lower Kennebec River and Merrymeeting Bay in mid-coast Maine. A second grant was awarded to support habitat protection work in the coastal lands surrounding Pleasant Bay in downeast Maine. Together, these two projects will permanently protect more than 1,500 acres of high value coastal wetlands and associated upland buffer, and will l
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$4 million in non-federal matching funds. Most lands protected will be managed in perpetuity by Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Great Auk Land Trust, Lower Kennebec Region Land Trust or Friends of Merrymeeting Bay. Both land protection projects focus on protecting important habitat that supports large concentrations of migrating or wintering waterfowl, shorebirds, wading birds, seabirds, searun fish, and rare and endangered species. In addition, properties protected with the federal grants guarantee public access.
The Maine Wetlands Protection Coalition, a group of federal, state and non-governmental conservation groups committed to permanently protect Maine’s wetlands, coordinated and supported both initiatives. Coalition partners include U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Gulf of Maine Coastal Program, Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Ducks Unlimited, Inc. and Trust for Public Lands. Coalition members worked in close coordination with federal grant administrators from our U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Office, local land trusts, and many generous landowners committed to conservation. All partners deserve tremendous credit in achieving these important conservation successes.
Both of these federal grants continue to partnership between U.S. Fishand Wildlife Service, the State of Maine, land trusts and landowners to protect significant fish and wildlife habitat before it is lost to development. This is the fifth NAWCA grant in the Kennebec Estuary and the second NAWCA grant in the Pleasant Bay region. In the last decade, two grant programs administered through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- the North American Wetlands Conservation Act Program and the National Coastal Wetland Grant Program have supported 39 successful habitat protection projects in Maine by providing $17 million in federal funds to help Maine protect more than 1.5 million acres of high value habitat.***
Gulf of Maine Coastal Program is one of 21 Coastal Program offices in the United States, established by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to build partnerships to identify, protect and restore nationally significant habitat for fish, wildlife and people.