The Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program has announced awards totaling more than $1.2 million. This is the fifth round of such awards to help restore, enhance or preserve wetlands and other important habitats at 12 project sites around the state.

The program provides flexibility for both regulators and the regulated community to choose a fee in lieu of more time-intensive traditional mitigation options. These so-called In Lieu Fees are collected by the Maine DEP and then transferred to the Natural Resource Conservation Fund at The Nature Conservancy.

“I’m excited that this announcement marks the fifth year that the Maine DEP, The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have come together and done great things for Maine’s natural and economic environments,” said Commissioner Patricia Aho of the Maine DEP. “By providing in lieu fees as a mitigation option for developers, we are able to support important environmental enhancements in areas susceptible to development.”

“Five years since this important program began, we’re starting to seeing progress toward conserving Maine’s aquatic resources,” said Alex Mas, who manages the program for The Nature Conservancy in Maine. “Traditional mitigation projects can often be scattered, small or poorly located; this program allows us to focus wetland mitigation funds in high priority areas to help ensure they continue to provide important benefits for people and for wildlife into the future.”

In the Midcoast

The Damariscotta River Association (DRA) will purchase 97 acres of a forested tract with $107,000, which connects the Bureau of Public Land’s Dodge Point Preserve with the Maine Department of Inland and Fisheries Wildlife Sherman Marsh Wildlife Management Area. This will represent the first significant connection between the Sheepscot and Damariscotta rivers corridors.

The Kennebec Estuary Land Trust will use $199,5000 to protect an 86 acre property in Georgetown, which is a valuable and critical parcel to the protection of the Morse Pond area. The property connects 325 acres of other KELT properties and creates a new connection between them and Reid State Park.

Other 2013 award recipients include: The Loon Echo Land Trust, The Atlantic Salmon Federation, Great Works Regional Land Trust, Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, Harpswell Heritage Land Trust, Maine Coast Heritage Trust and the Western Foothills Land Trust.

For more information about the Maine Natural Resource Conservation program, and other recipients, visit mnrcp.org.