News & Announcements
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April 4, 2006
Project Coordinator Contact:
Stewart Fefer
(stewart_fefer@fws.gov;
207-781-8364 x17)
Land Protection Success Stories
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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Gulf of Maine Coastal Program is delighted to announce several Maine habitat protection success stories that have been funded with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dollars and non-federal matching funds. First, we received notice that four Small North American Wetland Conservation Act grant proposals were funded. Next, we learned that National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Act funds to protect lands near Reversing Falls in Cobscook Bay have been released. Finally, all of the funds from the Phase I Large NAWCA grant have been spent, protecting multiple islands and coastal wetland parcels in the Greater Pleasant Bay region in downeast Maine. In total, these projects alone have brought $1,369,800 of federal dollars to Maine and will be used to permanently protect 1,676 acres of high value fish and wildlife habitat through local and statewide land trusts. Conservation partners provided an additional $2.9 million in non-federal matching funds.
Recipients of the four Small NAWCA proposals ($50,000 maximum federal funds) include:
- Damariscotta River Association for important coastal wetland property
- York Land Trust for salt marsh habitat and upland buffer along the York River,
- Great Works Region Land Trust for forested wetland and vernal pool property in the Tatnic Hills, and
- The Nature Conservancy (Maine Chapter) for floodplain forest along the Upper Saco River
The Coastal Wetland Grant to protect the 256.8 acre Cobscook Falls property will be owned and managed by Quoddy Region Land Trust, with a reverter clause to Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Maine Coast Heritage Trust played a pivotal role in acquisition negotiations and details.
The Phase I Large NAWCA grant has protected 889 acres in the Greater Pleasant Bay region. Multiple parcels, including islands and coastal wetlands will be owned and managed by Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Great Auk Land Trust, and Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge.
Gulf of Maine Coastal Program staff worked closely with conservation partners by
- providing strategic advice on important details relating to accessing these federal funds,
- providing and interpreting biological data from our Gulf of Maine habitat analysis and data from state agencies and NGOs, derived from Beginning with Habitat, and
- writing biological components of the final grant proposals, reviewing and extensively commenting on draft texts, and/or providing samples of successful proposals from previous years,
- reviewing budgetary requirements, and
- calculating wetland acreages and completing maps to accompany the proposals.
In addition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff at Gulf of Maine Coastal Program, our Regional Office staff that coordinate the National Coastal Wetland Conservation Grant Program and the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, staff at Maine Coast Heritage Trust and The Nature Conservancy, staff and volunteers of local land trusts, Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and generous and committed landowners all deserve tremendous credit in achieving these important conservation successes.