$85K Natural Resource Conservation Grant

BRWD has been awarded $85,630 to purchase and conserve 68 acres of forested land in the Adams Pond watershed and to restore about 600 feet of stream. BRWD will use its own watershed conservation funds to match the MNRCP grant and the property will be preserved under a conservation easement to be held by the Boothbay Region Land Trust (BRLT).

“Healthy watershed forests, wetlands and streams are critical to Adams Pond water quality. We are delighted to receive this grant, which will help us provide additional protection to the public water supply for generations to come,” BRWD Natural Resources Program Manager Sue Mello said.

“BRLT is excited to be partnering with BRWD on this project,” BRLT Executive Director Nick Ullo said, “We look forward to continuing this partnership into the future to ensure the safeguarding of the watershed.”

The Maine Natural Resource Conservation Grant Program was created in 2007 to manage and allocate funds collected by Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)’s In-Lieu Fee Compensation Program. This voluntary program allows developers whose projects impact wetland resources to pay a fee directly to DEP as an alternative to traditional mitigation. Collected fees are made available through the MNRCP grant program, which allocates funds, based on the type and location of original wetland impacts, to projects that will restore, enhance and preserve natural resources across the state. The Nature Conservancy administers the program and an interagency group of state and federal agencies decides which grant projects are funded. In 2015, 19 individual MNRCP grant applications were proposed and eight projects were awarded a total of $883,647.