BCC now on Facebook

In addition to the BCC blog (www.bremenconservation.blogspot.com) you can now follow the Bremen Conservation Commission on Facebook!! Your participation is encouraged!

Grant Writing Workshops

MEACC and the Maine Land Trust Network are co-sponsoring two workshops designed to improve your chances of successfully obtaining funding from three major conservation grant programs in Maine. The three include the Maine Natural Resources Conservation Program (open space acquisition); The Recreational Trails Program (trail building projects); and Project Canopy (forest management, shade trees). In addition, information will also be presented regarding Land for Maine's Future grants and various private foundation grant sources.

The workshops will be held in Augusta on April 15th and Scarborough on May 5th. Details, including registration information can be found at www.meacc.net

MEACC Regional Workshops

The Maine Association of Conservation Commissions is sponsoring a series of regional workshops designed to showcase the work of local conservation commissions that are having a significant impact on their community’s environment and quality of place. Each session will feature presentations by conservation commissions that have done exemplary job of protecting their community’s natural resources. Some workshops will include an orientation to the various local conservation planning tools developed by the Beginning with Habitat program; others will include information on how a community that does not have a conservation commission might create one. (Specific agendas will vary by location.)The featured projects were developed by the conservation commissions in Wells, Lamoine, Falmouth, Rockport and Kennebunkport. Each workshop is free and open to all conservation commission members, elected and appointed town officials and other people interested in learning more about the work of conservation commissions and the value they offer municipalities. All workshops will start at 4:00 p.m. and end by 6:00 p.m. They are scheduled on the following dates and locations. Pre-registration is required.

Falmouth, Wednesday, March 31st, Falmouth Memorial Library

Wells, Tuesday, April 6th, Laudholm Farm

Ellsworth, Tuesday April 13th, Ellsworth City Hall

Waldoboro, Tuesday, April 27th, UME Extension Center

Maine conservation success stories

From efforts to contain suburban sprawl in Brunswick, to protecting open space in Rockland and Wells, local conservation commissions are having a significant impact on their communities. And, for the first time, those accomplishments are being documented in case studies that are now available at the Maine Association of Conservation Commission’s Web site (www.meacc.net).

“These case studies are designed to give other people ‘how-to examples’ of projects that can make a real difference in a community and to motivate others to tackle such substantial work,” said Bob Shafto of Falmouth, executive director of the Maine Association of Conservation Commissions.

“The intent of the case studies is to expand the universe of ideas available to conservation commission members around the state, and to give them the opportunity to learn from the experience of others,” he said.

The collection (titled “Home Rules, Home Tools: Locally Led Conservation Achievements”) includes the following case studies:

• Brunswick’s rural smart growth initiative, one of the earliest and most comprehensive efforts in Maine to contain suburban sprawl;

• Falmouth’s comprehensive open-space protection effort, including its land acquisition, financing and management strategies;

• Kennebunkport’s “Lawns to Lobsters” initiative, an extensive effort to minimize fertilizer and pesticide use in the community;

• Rockport’s successful effort to protect open space and the extensive views around Clam Cove; and

• Wells’ successful effort to protect open space for future generations.

These stories all illustrate the role that conservation commissions can play in local government. One of the lessons to come out of the case studies is that “to be effective, conservation commissions need to be actively involved in multiple levels of town government,” said Steven McAllister, a member of the Rockport Conservation Commission.

“This means working together with town boards and committees to ensure that the commission's interests are represented and considered, especially with regard to the comprehensive planning process, ordinance writing and review, and in decisions made by the town's planning board,” said McAllister.

Conservation commissions advise elected and appointed officials on environmental issues and undertake initiatives designed to address local environmental concerns. Commissions build trails, work to control invasive species, develop open space plans, propose ordinances, work with school children, educate citizens about pesticide use, monitor development, protect their town’s special wild places, and work to keep Maine communities attractive places to live, work and raise families.

At one time, most Maine communities had a conservation commission, but those numbers dwindled over the past 30 years as the state created its system for environmental stewardship.

However, growing development pressures have underscored the need for community-based responses. That is what prompted Shafto, a longtime environmental leader in Falmouth, to re-start the dormant Maine Association of Conservation Commissions three years ago. The state association’s goal is to ensure that every Maine community has an active, effective conservation commission.

And Shafto said he sees a trend developing. More than two-dozen towns have created (or re-created) a conservation commission in the past three years, and another half-dozen are in the process of doing so. According to the Maine State Planning Office, a significant number of towns have set a goal of creating a conservation commission in their comprehensive plan.

“A lot of Maine’s quality places are in its towns and cities,” said Shafto. “Thus, municipalities have an important role to play if we are serious about protecting Maine’s unique quality of place.”