News & Announcements
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March 23, 2006
Project Coordinator: Jed Wright (jed_wright@fws.gov; 207-781-8364 x12)
Machias River Project Receives Second National Award
Gulf of Maine Coastal Program is proud to be honored on March 21 as one of 17 recipients of the U.S. Forest Service "Wings Across the Americas Award" for our partnership work that led to the completion of all three phases of the Machias River Project. This award follows a 2004 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service national partnership award for the Phase I portion of the Machias River Project. When all three phases of the Machias River Project are completed, 59,793 acres will be protected by fee acquisition and conservation easements - including 312 miles of lake, river and stream shoreline. The riparian acquisition project is designed to permanently protect high value habitat for federally listed Atlantic salmon, as well as other native fish and wildlife that depend on healthy riparian corridors.
The Machias River Project connects to other state and private conservation lands, creating a total landscape of 443,465 acres of ecologically and economically significant lands and waters protected with ecological reserves, stream and lakeside buffers and sustainably managed forests. In total, partners have raised more than $12 million to support the project. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, with coordination and support from the Gulf of Maine Coastal Program, New England Field Office and staffs at the Regional Office and Washington levels, have provided $3.85 million of that total - including $2 million from USFWS Endangered Species Recovery Funds, $1.4 million from the Maine Atlantic Salmon Conservation Fund (co-administered by our office and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation) and $450K from the North Cape Oil Spill mitigation funds.