AUGUSTA

More than $2 million from the Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program (MNRCP) will help ten communities restore, enhance or protect wetlands and other important habitats at eleven project sites around the state, the Department of Environmental Protection announced today.

“This collaboration between Maine DEP, The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Army Corps is facilitating a systematic and strategic process for comprehensive compensation projects that are saving and strengthening our state’s highest value wetland habitats,” said Commissioner Paul Mercer of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

“Over the past eight years, this program has become one of Maine’s most meaningful tools used in partnership by conservationists and developers to ensure important environmental protections. It’s a win-win for Maine’s natural environment, and it’s an economic one,” Mercer said.

Recipients of project funding in this round include Blue Hill Heritage Trust, Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, Damariscotta River Association, Downeast Salmon Federation, Great Works Regional Land Trust, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Maine Rivers, Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust, and the Town of Falmouth. In all, $2,181,187 was awarded.

“After all efforts have been made to avoid or minimize wetland impacts, this program provides permit applicants an efficient and workable alternative to traditional mitigation, while providing a better outcome for our wetland habitats,” said Ruth Ladd, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District. “The fees are used to restore, enhance, preserve or create aquatic resources and their associated uplands.”

The program was created to help offset unavoidable impacts on protected natural resources at one site by funding the restoration or preservation of similar resources at another to maintain ecological benefits. In all, more than 90 projects across Maine have been funded since 2009.

It provides regulatory flexibility for agencies to approve a fee in lieu of traditional on-site mitigation. In Lieu Fees are collected by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and then transferred to the Natural Resource Conservation Fund. Public agencies and non-profit conservation organizations apply, through a competitive process, to use these funds for restoration and preservation in Maine.

Proposals were evaluated and ranked by a Review Committee, which was convened by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and made up of public and nonprofit entities. The final funding decisions were made by an approval committee comprised of state and federal agencies.

The Nature Conservancy administers the process and is responsible for seeing that the projects are executed. In this administrative role, the Conservancy does not have a vote on which proposals are approved for funding.

“These projects help ensure that mitigation funding has long-lasting benefits conserving key habitat areas around the state,” said Alex Mas, associate director of conservation for The Nature Conservancy in Maine. “All parts of Maine benefit from this comprehensive effort.”

For more information about the Maine Natural Resource Conservation program, visit http://mnrcp.org/