Portland Water District, nonprofits get $8M in federal funding for Sebago Lake conservation
Photo / Renee Cordes
Sebago Lake, a popular destination for outdoor recreation, also supplies drinking water to more than 200,000 people in greater Portland.
A conservation-focused coalition led by the Portland Water District will get $8 million in federal funding to support forest conservation, land stewardship and other natural resource preservation in the Sebago Lake watershed.
The funding, announced on Friday, was awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through its Natural Resources Conservation Service Regional Conservation Partnership Program.
Portland Water District, as the lead partner for the grant, will manage the funds and work closely with other partners in the Sebago Clean Waters coalition.
The other partners are the Loon Echo Land Trust, Western Foothills Land Trust, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, Highstead Foundation, Lakes Environmental Association, Open Space Institute, the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land.
“Through these projects, partners are able to take the lead and leverage the flexibilities that make [the federal program] so effective,” Benjamin Naumann, assistant state conservationist for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program in Maine, said in Friday's news release.
“Partners are delivering conservation in new and innovative ways, and by working together we can harness our collective resources to produce greater results for conservation and agriculture," he added.
The initiative will greatly enhance SCW’s ability to meet its goal of protecting 25% of the land in the Sebago watershed in the next 15 years.
Currently, only 11% percent of the forests in the 234,000-acre watershed are conserved. They act as a natural filter for the water that feeds into Sebago Lake. As the drinking water supply for more than 200,000 people in greater Portland — Maine’s largest urban area — the lake is a unique and critical resource for the state but is threatened by development.
“We are in a watershed moment figuratively, and now literally, thanks to this grant and our partners at Sebago Clean Waters,” said Lee Dassler, executive director Western Foothills Land Trust.
“Protecting our forests and waters, strengthening the forest-based economies of our region, and ensuring biological diversity in the watershed — all elements of this grant — are essential to achieving a sustainable future for our wild and human communities.”
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