By Joshua Archer
Special to The Star-Herald
AUGUSTA, Maine — A $6 million federal investment will help private forestland owners reduce the impacts of flooding on road networks and restore more than 250 miles of fish habitat in northern and eastern Maine, the partners in the Maine Aquatic Connectivity Restoration Project announced December 21, 2016.
The five-year project, announced Dec. 21 by partners in the Maine Aquatic Connectivity Restoration Project, aims to replace several hundred culverts, restoring some 250 miles of brooks, streams and rivers in over a dozen priority watersheds in the top half of Maine.
“This funding opportunity will prioritize streams that have high quality fish habitat—typically on private commercial forestlands that have road-stream crossings where there is documented abundant habitat for sea-run fish and/or eastern brook trout.,” Timothy Paul, communications and marketing manager for The Nature Conservancy in Maine, said.
“At the end of the day, the project will lead to replacement and right-sizing of hundreds of culverts in northern and eastern Maine and open up some 250 miles of habitat. At the same time, it will provide the short-term benefit of construction jobs and long-term benefits that include increased road stability and greater safety throughout Maine’s aging private road network.”
The project is the nation’s top ranked funding agreement through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The funding is being awarded to The Nature Conservancy and the partnership effort includes more than two dozen entities, including large forestland owners, tribal nations, federal agencies, conservation groups and local operators.
This project is one of 88 high-impact projects across the country that will receive $225 million in federal funding as part of the RCPP.
“By restoring and reconnecting waterways and improving roads and bridges, this project will help improve fish habitats and enhance the forest economy in northern and eastern Maine,” U.S. Senator Susan Collins said. “I commend The Nature Conservancy for partnering with local landowners and others on this collaborative effort that will help protect our environment, improve fishing, and benefit communities throughout the region.”
“This project represents the very best of Maine — environmental stewardship combined with economic growth and driven by innovative collaboration — all of which once again shows that, in Maine, preserving our environment and building our economy can go hand-in-hand,” U.S. Sen. Angus King said. “I commend the Nature Conservancy for bringing this group together
with the shared goal of improving fish habitats while also strengthening our forest roadway infrastructure, and appreciate the significant investment in Maine’s future from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”
“Our state’s fisheries and coastal habitats are treasures and key parts of Maine’s identity, providing for thousands of jobs through tourism, harvesting and other critical industries,” Congressman Bruce Poliquin (ME-2nd District) said. “I’m proud to have urged support for this important project and am thrilled to see its approval to help advance our infrastructure and protect our environment and the thousands of Maine families who depend on it.”
The project provides the short-term benefit of construction jobs with long-term benefits that include increased road stability and greater safety throughout Maine’s aging road network. The project will focus on waterways that have some of the last endangered Atlantic salmon populations in the United States as well as critical Eastern brook trout habitat. Fragmented aquatic habitat is identified as a primary threat to both species, degrading healthy stream function and keeping fish from some of the most important spawning and rearing habitat.
The Nature Conservancy will work collaboratively with other conservation groups, tribal nations, other major landowners, local roads managers, and state and federal agencies to ensure the proper installation and repair of culverts to improve stream health while also helping communities that count on secure road networks to withstand severe storms.
“When so many talented partners come together to address natural resource concerns, they bring innovative ideas and expertise that one agency or group might not have been able to develop alone,” NRCS-Maine State Conservationist Juan Hernandez explained. “The Regional Conservation Partnership Program is focused on encouraging these types of partnerships. With the expert lead of The Nature Conservancy, I believe that the partnerships advanced through the Maine Aquatic Connectivity Restoration Project will truly accomplish amazing results for our aquatic wildlife passage in Maine.”
The project partners are pledging to more than double the investment in roads from the $6 million awarded from the RCPP for this five-year project. This level of commitment and funding stands to dramatically increase rate, efficiency and quality of river restoration in Maine and beyond. The lessons learned by road planners and contractors, community decision makers and wildlife managers will have a broad and long-lasting impact on the health of Maine’s natural resources.
“The landowners in Maine’s commercial working forest, which includes roughly nine million acres, have a strong commitment to stewardship,” said Patrick Strauch, executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council. “Participating in this effort will enable them to further identify and upgrade crossings with high priority fisheries habitats during the normal course of forestry operations.”
“With over 11 million acres of Maine forest in private hands,” Kate Dempsey, state director of The Nature Conservancy in Maine, said, “this project stands ultimately to influence stream-friendly management on thousands of miles of some of the best aquatic habitat in the East and spur innovations and efficiencies to influence restoration even more broadly nationally as we and our partners share lessons from this project.”
The Project Area includes the last endangered Atlantic salmon listed watersheds and some of the highest quality remaining Eastern brook trout habitat in the United States.
