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Heavy rain and a partially collapsed culvert under the Park Loop Road caused significant flooding in the spring of 2023 along the Jesup Path, a popular boardwalk near the Great Meadow wetland. Photo by Kate Cough.

$4.6 million awarded for wetland restoration around the state

Ten wetland restoration projects will receive $4.6 million from the Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program, including funding for a project in Acadia National Park to improve the park’s largest freshwater wetland, which has seen extensive flooding in recent years, and money to remove dams on the Royal and Nezinscot rivers in Yarmouth.

“The diversity of projects is what’s most exciting for me as we look forward to seeing these implemented,” said Bryan Emerson, a mitigation program manager with The Nature Conservancy, which administers the program along with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The funding pool and number of projects are more than double that of last year, which saw $1.2 million granted to three projects. The increase is in part due to funds that rolled over from an earlier funding round, when a change in the program resulted in a high number of rejected proposals, likely because not all applicants understood the switch, said Dawn Hallowell, a regional director for the DEP.

Rereading one of our favorite pieces by Kathryn Schulz, about the astounding navigational abilities of many animals.

One of the most fascinating tidbits: scientists believe many animals navigate using the earth's magnetic field, and have found small deposits of magnetite, "the most magnetic of earth’s naturally occurring minerals, in the beaks of many birds, as well as in dolphins, turtles, bacteria, and other creatures."

While The Maine Monitor does not place its content behind paywalls, some newsrooms we link to in this newsletter may. 

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Democrats are upset about a Maine lobsterman’s unpaid role in the Trump administration | Bangor Daily News

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The Maine Monitor is a publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, an independent and nonpartisan nonprofit news organization that produces investigative journalism. We believe news is a public good and keep our news free to access. We have no paywall and do not charge for our newsletters. If you value the reporting we do for Maine, please consider making a donation! We cannot do this reporting without your support.

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