Projects
Identifying & Assessing Habitat
Maine Coastal Seabird, Wading Bird and Eagle Nesting Islands
Working with other partners, Gulf of
Maine Coastal Program biologists analyzed existing information on
nesting seabirds, wading birds and bald eagles on 4,617 coastal
islands
and ledges in Maine. 616 of those islands have harbored nesting waterbirds -- today or in the past. Of those, 377 provide nationally significant nesting habitat, and more than half of those islands lack permanent protection. In addition, only 11 of the 377 islands enjoy active management programs designed to restore and maintain the natural diversity of island-nesting birds. Over the
past decade,
this information has been instrumental in catalyzing many successful
initiatives to permanently protect and restore important nesting islands by the
National Wildlife Refuge, the State of Maine, National Audubon Society, and statewide and local
land trusts.
The information on nesting islands has also been incorporated in
the Maine Coastal Nesting Islands National Wildlife Refuge's Comprehensive
Conservation Management Plan to guide future protection and restoration projects.
Remember that seabird islands are closed to the public during
the nesting season, April 1 - August 31, to minimize disturbance to the
birds.
More information:
- Fact sheet on Maine Coastal Nesting Islands (232K PDF)
- List of nationally significant islands
- Maps of nationally significant islands. See pages 26-36 in Appendices the "Maine Coastal Nesting Islands Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan at http://library.fws.gov/CCPs/MaineIslands/appendices.pdf (9MB PDF)
- The "Maine Coastal Nesting Islands Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan" is a thorough resource for island nesting information (please note that file size is 90MB): http://library.fws.gov/CCPs/MaineIslands/ccp_final.pdf (90MB PDF)
