AUGUSTA – State wildlife planner Sandy Ritchie was excited to learn Thursday that Maine was awarded $621,020 in federal wildlife grant funds this month.

She said it is the second largest sum in the three years that Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has gotten funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s State Wildlife Grant Program.

“This will help us get a lot of things accomplished. It’s a really valuable program for us,” Ritchie said.

According to Gale Norton, the U.S. Department of Interior secretary, the program is designed to assist states in the development and implementation of programs that benefit wildlife, including species not fished or hunted, and their habitats.

The $621,020 is Maine’s portion of $61.2 million in wildlife grants awarded to state and territorial wildlife agencies by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this month. The funds come from offshore oil leases.

The State Wildlife Grant Program helps states tailor their conservation efforts to best fit local conditions, according to Norton.

“Because so many issues related to wildlife conservation are not contained by borders, states and the service must work together to coordinate efforts to conserve endangered and threatened species, manage migrating birds and ensure that the foundations for wildlife management are good science and habitat,” Norton stated in a press release.

More than 20 different projects involving Maine’s rare, threatened, endangered and non-game wildlife species will be funded by the money.

“We’ve got some really heavy-hitter, long-term projects that we plan to continue funding through these grants, but also, we have some 1- and 2-year projects to do,” Ritchie said.

Some of the projects are:

• Beginning with Habitat – a cooperative effort to maintain habitats to support native plant and animal species in Maine by providing each Maine town with maps and information describing local habitats.

• Wildlife Management Areas, Planning and Habitat Management for the Future. Ritchie said the project’s goal is to develop and populate a statewide wildlife management area database and update area management plans.

• Bald Eagle Survey and Essential Habitat – Bald eagles are continuing their comeback in Maine. Currently, the state is home to nearly 300 nesting pairs, “a remarkable 10-fold increase from the 30 nesting pairs reported in the late 1970s,” Ritchie said.

But despite the accomplishment, the state’s ultimate challenge is to provide suitable habitat for eagles in the future.

The project’s purpose is to devise statewide strategies and to identify optimal sites for long-term conservation of bald eagle nesting habitat as the fundamental safeguard for a lasting recovery of the species in Maine.

“This safety net is the last pending objective for state reclassification of bald eagles from the current status of threatened species,” she added.

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