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Land Resources / News / New Hampshire
York County habitat benefits from federal landowner program
Source: Seacoast Online, by Rachel M Collins
York County benefits from federal funds of $527K for plant and animal species
August 19, 2007 When Christine Bennett, development director for the Great Works Regional Land Trust, heard the federal government was making available another $527,607 to protect critical habitat for rare plants and animals in Maine, she was elated. That's because environmental groups' efforts in York County are "incredibly costly," she said. Though home to Maine's most diverse collection of plant and wildlife species, it is also the sixth-fastest growing county by percentage in New England, causing critical habitat to be quickly fragmented or completely lost due to increased development and also meaning buying development rights or conservation easements is expensive. "Bake sales just won't cut it, although we still do those, too," Bennett said. Increasingly, groups have to rely on funds like the $500,000-plus being offered this year through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services' Landowner Incentive Program. Established with $1.3 million several years ago from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Landowner Incentive Program is designed to protect identified rare, threatened and endangered species habitats by providing private landowners with financial and/or technical assistance to manage their lands. "From Merrymeeting Bay to Scarborough Marsh, the Maine Landowner Incentive Program is conserving some of our most valuable and threatened wildlife habitat," said U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, a member of the House Budget Committee. "I'm pleased that these Landowner Incentive funds will allow this program to continue protecting the extraordinary natural legacy of our state." The funds, awarded through a competitive grant process, go to the Maine Landowner Incentive Program, which is managed jointly by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Maine Department of Conservation's Natural Areas Program. They then are being used to offer a variety of tools to landowners for the conservation of rare and endangered plants and wildlife habitat, including funds for conservation easements, cooperative management agreements and habitat management activities. In fact, as Maine readies to receive money under the program for the fourth year in a row, more than 2,500 acres of critical habitat within 15 eligible focus areas are set to be protected. According to a systematic survey done by the Natural Areas Program and the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department, 20 areas in York County alone were identified. Among those are the Greater Brave Boat Harbor area in Kittery and York, Mount Agamenticus — which has its summit in York but spans from Eliot to Wells — and the Beaver Dam Heath in Berwick. The Mt. Agamenticus area is known to have 21 rare plant species, while the 1,000-plus acre wetland that makes up the Beaver Dam Heath has two rare animal species and one rare plant species. "This part of Maine is the most biologically diverse," Bennett said. "We have more species than anywhere else." Certainly, according to the statewide survey, southern and coastal Maine are home to "some of the rarest occurrences" of a diverse collection of plant and wildlife species. To preserve one such area — within the so-called Tatnic Turtle corridor — the Great Works Trust has applied for a grant this year that would allow it to defray the cost of a fair-market appraisal on buying the development rights on the 25-acre Hasty Farm, said Tim Smith, a board member with Great Works Trust who is overseeing that project. The goal is to protect 25 acres within the Tatnic Region of South Berwick, which is the northwestern section of the Mt. Agamenticus area, and has the highest concentration of vernal pools in New England. "As everyone knows, land prices have increased enormously in the last 10 years," Bennett said. "So the monies were critical for funding this project and seeing it through." The grant would be for $175,000, Smith said, that "hopefully would cover a good portion of the acquisition cost" of the deal, which still is being negotiated. "The whole point is to protect farms and working landscapes," he said. "This is a great help, because it allows us to permanently conserve lands. This is a working farm and they want to keep it that way. This allows them to recoup some of the costs and continue farming." The eventual goal, he said, is to preserve 85 acres in the immediate region. "It's a very unique area with a unique bedrock structure" owed to "when way back when there were volcanoes in this region that can be traced from Ossipee Hills in New Hampshire to Cape Neddick in Maine," Bennett said. That bedrock has left the southern Maine region with shallow soils that are conducive to creating small pocket wetlands or vernal pools, home to an array of insects, frogs and turtles including the Blanding's and Spotted turtles, both identified as rare or endangered in the state, she said. Another project is the Beaver Dam Heath in Berwick, which is "one of the few remaining wetlands" abundant with cedar trees. Already, the landowner has donated 100 of the homestead's 130 acres, as well as part of the cost of an easement on the remaining 28 acres, Smith said. Landowner Incentive Program funds are expected to be used on the cost of the conservation easement, he said. Although currently there are no projects in the Brave Boat Harbor area, previously, Calvin and Thomas Hosmer granted a conservation easement to the York Land Trust on 30 acres of open fields and a mile of oceanfront, preventing future development. That land abuts conserved marshland and forestland in the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge conveyed to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by the Hosmers' parents. In total, 150 acres of land have been committed to conservation by the Hosmer family. Still, Smith said programs like Landowner Incentive Program now offer environmental groups a much-needed option to identify and then secure easements on conservation land in an area where land costs have continued to rise substantially. "LIP fits a niche when landowners own land but don't necessarily have a lot of money," Smith said. "They are interested in conserving land. This allows them to recoup equity in the property, but maintain the uses." As he put it, "It's a win-win situation for everyone." Read the complete article from Seacoast Online » |
