This summer the Maine Legislature approved a $12 million bond package for The Land for Maine’s Future (LMF) program. Of that amount, $2 million is fixed specifically for keeping working waterfront lands in private ownership.
“There was a strong bipartisan desire to do something in this area,” commented David Etnier, Maine’s Deputy Commissioner of Marine Resources.
Instead of starting the new program that many had advocated, the compromise was to fold it into the Land for Maine’s Future program.
In this pilot program, the Commissioner of Marine Resources will work with the LMF board to identify and allocate funds.
Every dollar the state spends must be matched on the local level. A fishermen’s cooperative, for example, might match state funds to buy a pier. That property will be encumbered with easements to keep it in working waterfront use.