Project Canopy
March 1st is the beginning of "meteorological" Spring - but it certainly hasn't felt like it here in Maine! But Late Winter/Early Spring is the best time to prune many of your fruit and young hardwood trees - check out Dr. Ed Gilman's video below. Grants are available for coastal communities and urban tree projects; and restrictions on moving ash materials are changing. And the New York Times visited central Maine to highlight some great work our neighbors are doing to help their communities stay warm no matter the season.
We hope you are staying warm as well.
- Kim & Jan, Project Canopy
 NYT/ Marguerite Holloway
ORLAND, MAINE — The cluster of a dozen or so houses in rural Maine could be a summer camp closed for the winter. The compound has an eclectic, informal feel, with colorful hand-painted signs and stained glass, pottery, and woodworking studios. It was quiet on a bright, cold winter morning. Except for the line outside the food pantry, and the cars pulling in to leave small passengers at child care.
The site, a resource center for low-income and homeless families called H.O.M.E., was founded in 1970 by a small band of Carmelite nuns. They cleared forest with Norwegian Fjord Horses and set up a crafts-making operation for the local community and a gift shop — and then a child-care center, a shelter program, an auto repair garage, a saw mill, a shingle mill, a garden and a greenhouse, a GED program, a food co-op that has become a food bank, and a home-construction unit.
During a bitter winter a few years ago, the organization added another community service: a wood bank. Read more...
A Community Guide to Starting & Running a Wood Bank, Vivian, Sabrina and Leahy, Jessica; School of Forest Resources, University of Maine
AUGUSTA - The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry's Municipal Planning Assistance Program seeks applications for a new round of Coastal Community Grants for FY 2022. The grants are for municipal and regional projects in Maine’s Coastal Zone. Funding for those technical assistance grants comes from Maine Coastal Program’s annual grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The total amount of funds available for the Coastal Communities Grant Program in FY22 is expected to be approximately $175,000. The minimum award amount will be $20,000 and the maximum award amount will be $50,000. Communities eligible to apply include towns in Maine’s coastal zone, groups of towns in Maine’s coastal zone; coastal Regional Planning Commissions; and coastal Councils of Government.
This program statement invites proposals in three categories that focus on building community resiliency and adapting to climate change; particularly those that address the State of Maine’s Adaptation Goals in Maine Won’t Wait: A Four-Year Plan for Climate Action (December 2020). Eligible Coastal Community Grant project categories include:
- Ensuring Sustainable, Vibrant Coastal Communities
- Restoring Coastal Habitats
- Preparing for coastal storms, erosion and flooding, coastal hazards
Grant applications are due Thursday, April 15, 2021.
Coastal Community Grants are an important element of the Municipal Planning Assistance Program’s mission to foster innovative and effective approaches to land use management by providing technical and financial assistance to Maine municipalities. The Coastal Community Grant Program (CCG) Statement can be found at: https://www.maine.gov/dacf/municipalplanning/financial_assistance.shtml
More information about the Maine Coastal Program can be found at: https://www.maine.gov/dmr/mcp/about/index.htm
 USU Extension Forestry - Dr. Ed Gilman - Dr. Gilman guarantees that once you begin pruning trees using the strategies learn in this webinar, you will not regress to the old way. He demonstrates practical strategies to increase long-term tree survival - starting at planting. Afterwards, you will be able to step outside and immediately begin to prune in a more sustainable manner. View presentation
AUGUSTA – The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry's (DACF) Plant Health Program (PHP) and Maine Forest Service (MFS) announced today that Maine is taking the next step to continue regulating the movement of ash wood material. Moving ash infested with Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) can spread this invasive insect to new areas. This decision follows USDA's January 14, 2021 announcement of removing federal domestic EAB quarantine regulations. DACF continues to see opportunities to slow EAB's spread; an estimated 90% of Maine's ash trees are outside of Maine's currently regulated areas. Ash is an important cultural resource for the Wabanaki, an important street tree, and a valuable timber species, accounting for around four percent of Maine's hardwood forest inventory.
Maine’s proposed EAB quarantine rules would maintain the prohibition on moving potentially EAB-infested materials into Maine's non-regulated areas from other states or Canadian provinces.
The proposed rules also include three options for expanding the areas regulated within Maine. Read more...
Finding plants that feed friendly insects
Invasive Insects and Diseases Are Killing Our Forests
Thinking Urban: Furniture & Public Spaces for People
Mar 5 - Webinar: Benefits and Costs of Natural Climate Solutions in Maine - Forestry, 2PM.
Mar 9 - Webinar: Invasive Woody Plant Management – Part 2 of 2, 2PM.
Mar 12 - Project Canopy Grant Applications Due, 5PM.
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