Conservation and recreation projects in western Maine scored some grant money from the Outdoor Heritage Fund thanks to instant lottery ticket sales.

The Heritage board awarded $30,000 to the Grafton Loop Coalition for its Grafton Loop Trail Construction Project.

The grant is slated to help complete the 42-mile backcountry hiking trail on public and private land in the Grafton Notch region, which includes Newry, Grafton and Riley townships, and Andover.

Another $27,704 was awarded to The Nature Conservancy and Maine Department of Conservation to biologically monitor Maine’s ecological reserves.

These include the Mahoosucs in Grafton and Riley townships, Gero Island in Chesuncook Township, and Cutler in Cutler and Whiting of Washington County.

A grant for $9,980 was awarded to Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust and the state conservation department for access in Franklin and Oxford counties.

The funds will be used to purchase a new 20-foot boat and 50-horsepower engine for safe, reliable transportation to conservation lands in the Rangeley Lakes region.

The Heritage board awarded $549,108 in grants recently in 20 projects across the state.

Among the other projects receiving grants were:

• Forest Certification Outreach and Forest Certification of Small Landowners, $50,000, to provide information and assistance to develop the capacity to enroll small woodlot owners in forest certification programs.

• Outdoor Kids Website and Magazine, $20,400, to produce an outdoor children’s magazine written primarily by children. It will be distributed by e-mail to children to help them understand and appreciate Maine’s outdoors and outdoor sporting activities including hunting and fishing.

• Identifying Late Successional Forest in Maine, $18,319, to test an assessment tool aimed at protecting stands of trees that are over a century old.

• Beginning with Habitat, $25,329, to provide technical information including maps of critical wildlife and plant habitat to up to 45 towns in central, Downeast, and northern Maine to assist in local conservation planning.

• Safari in a Box, $2,400, to provide eight trunks of hands-on wildlife materials to be borrowed by teachers to educate children about Maine’s wildlife.

• Maine’s Landowner Incentive Program, $26,750, to provide technical assistance and cost sharing for landowners to benefit at-risk endangered and threatened species and associated habitat.

• Kids and Gun Safety, $15,200, to fund television and print advertising on the importance of locking up firearms to improve the safety for children and teenagers.

• Enhancing Snowmobile Safety in Maine, $13,300, to produce a compact disc for use on computers with a 20-minute safety video and course for the Ride Right Snowmobile Safety Course developed by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Maine Snowmobile Association.

The Outdoor Heritage Fund program was established in 1995 by the Maine Legislature to provide funding for conservation and recreation projects.

Since the tickets first went on sale in 1996, the fund has awarded more than $10.5 million in grants to 385 projects statewide.

The grants, which are awarded twice a year, are distributed in four categories: fisheries and wildlife conservation (35 percent), acquisition and management of public lands (35 percent), endangered and threatened species conservation (15 percent), and natural resources law enforcement (15 percent).

For more information about recreation or conservation grant applications, call 688-4191 or visit www.state.me.us/ifw/outdoorheritage.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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