The Plan can be downloaded here.
For Background on the planning process, please see below.
Gulf of Maine Restoration and Conservation Initiative
A Priceless Ecosystem at Risk
The Gulf of Maine, with the coastal shorelines of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and the Canadian Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, is vital to human health and the regional economy. Millions of people depend on the Gulf of Maine watershed for food, recreation, transportation, and drinking water. It is a unique ecosystem, whose beauty and biological diversity enrich the lives of all who live, work and visit here. Yet each day, the greater Gulf of Maine, with its streams, lakes, bays, and beaches, is damaged by untreated sewage, toxic pollution, invasive species, loss of wildlife habitat, abandoned fishing gear and other human-caused impacts. The problems are serious and many of them have reached or are reaching crisis proportions. There are manageable solutions--some already in various stages of implementation--but if we do not move quickly the problems will only get worse and the solutions more expensive.
A Comprehensive Framework
The Gulf of Maine Restoration and Conservation Initiative is a collaborative effort led by an ad hoc group of agencies and organizations. The Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment is providing assistance to the initiation through facilitation and fund-raising. The group has developed a draft strategic framework for a unified and comprehensive restoration and conservation strategy for the bi-national Gulf of Maine. The framework identifies seven key Issue Areas, including:
1) Coastal Fish and Wildlife Populations and their Habitats
2) Coastal Water Quality
3) Invasive species in the coastal and marine environment
4) Abandoned fishing gear and other debris
5) The impacts of climate change
6) Long-range planning, science, and communication in collaboration with states, Tribes, NGOs (Non-governmental Organizations) and other stakeholders.
Federal Funding Required
The scale of funding needed to address the many problems impacting the Gulf of Maine watershed is far beyond the means of states, provinces, municipalities, NGOs and the philanthropic community, and far above historical levels of federal investment in regional restoration and conservation programs on both sides of the border. Although there is much good work underway, truly significant progress will require substantial increases in federal funding. Numerous other regional aquatic ecosystems in the US have had considerable success in procuring increased federal funding by organizing and advocating around comprehensive restoration strategies. The 2010 Interior Appropriations Bill provides $641 million for the implementation of restoration plans for the Great Lakes, Everglades, Chesapeake Bay, Puget Sound, Coastal Louisiana, San Francisco Bay, Gulf of Mexico, and several others. Of those funds, $475 million alone is dedicated to restoration of the Great Lakes, the result of a well-funded advocacy campaign by the Healing Our Waters--Great Lakes Coalition (a coalition of over 100 zoos, aquariums, conservation, business and environmental groups). Unfortunately, there is no funding in the bill for the Gulf of Maine. The reason for this, as explained by congressional staffers, is that until now there has been no Comprehensive Plan for the Gulf of Maine, and no advocacy effort except for individual programs and organizations. That is now changing.
1. How does this initiative relate to the current habitat and other restoration work already planned or underway in the Gulf of Maine?
The Gulf of Maine Ecosystem Restoration and Conservation Initiative builds on the good work already underway by numerous agencies and organizations active in the Gulf of Maine. It brings many diverse efforts under a single comprehensive plan on a scale similar to what is already in place for other Great Waters ecosystems, including Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, Everglades, Louisiana Coast, and Puget Sound. The main benefits of such a plan are 1) to eliminate redundancy and ensure that efforts are coordinated for maximum efficiency, and 2) to ensure that the Gulf of Maine region gets equal consideration with the other large aquatic ecosystems for US (and Canadian) federal funding for ecosystem restoration. The 2010 Interior and EPA Appropriations Bill, with $671,000,000 for restoration of the Great Lakes and other Great Waters, provides a powerful example of the importance of having a comprehensive plan in place.
2. How will the comprehensive plan be used?
Once the comprehensive plan has been completed2, Gulf of Maine stakeholders will work together to ensure that federal and state governments provide sufficient funding to fully implement it over time. This will require a very significant education and outreach effort similar to that undertaken for the Great Lakes restoration strategy by the Healing Our Waters¨--Great Lakes Coalition. It is a process in which private citizens, foundations, NGOs, and businesses will play a major role.
3. How were the Issue Areas determined?
In the spring of 2009 a Steering Committee with 20+ participants formed to take on the tasks of determining the need, scope, and scale of a comprehensive strategy and to design an inclusive process by which the strategy would be developed. The group started with the creation of the Table of Issue Areas relevant to the Gulf of Maine. Through an iterative process over several months the Issue Areas were refined with broad stakeholder input. The current version (see below) incorporates the work of seven Issue Area Strategy Teams at a second major planning meeting in November 2009. Additional stakeholder input, including a broad public engagement effort, will inform the final Table of Issue Areas.
4. What is the makeup of the Steering Committee and Strategy Teams?
The Steering Committee was originally composed of 20+ members from numerous state and federal agencies, and Non-Governmental Organizations throughout the Gulf of Maine states, with observer participants from Canada. The 40+ members of the Strategy Teams include representatives from the Maine Coastal Program, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game (Division of Ecological Restoration), the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, the US Fish and Wildlife Service Gulf of Maine Coastal Program, the US Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Center (Gloucester MA), the National Wildlife Federation, the Ocean Conservancy, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative, Friends of Casco Bay, Conservation Law Foundation, Talking Conservation, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Mount Desert Island Biological Lab, Casco Bay Estuary Program, Sierra Club, Society for the Preservation of Hew Hampshire Forests, Ocean River Institute, Biodiversity Research Institute, and others.
In addition, there are numerous organizations that have been unable to attend, or have been participating in an advisory capacity. Some of these include the Maine Environmental Funders Network, The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources Council of Maine, and others. The Steering Committee and Strategy Teams are not intended as exclusive groups, and the process of completing the comprehensive strategy is specifically intended to be open to all stakeholders.
For more information, the latest briefing paper, or if you would like your organization included, please contact me at peter (at) talkingconservation (dot) org
or call me at (802) 380-3080.