Throughout the past three years, the LePage Administration has listened to the regulated community and incorporated your suggestions on how we can improve our processes.  I created an entire Office of Innovation and Assistance to listen to, work with, and engage with our customers. We know that by listening to our customers we are able to provide targeted improvements such as creating educational and outreach materials to further improve compliance, learn about conflicts or impediments within our processes that we can resolve, or simply establish a relationship for when you may have questions or issues that need to be answered.

I directed the Office to make the department’s processes more accessible and open. For example, it’s now easier for the public to participate in our rulemakings because our hearings are audio-streamed. This means you only need an internet connection to hear what others are saying about the department’s proposals.   

It will come as no surprise to you, that many people across the state are interested in the amendments to the Chapter 1000: Guidelines for Municipal Shoreland Zoning Ordinances.  I believe that our improvement to the rulemaking process increases the  regulated community’s ability to participate. If you can’t make it to Augusta for the public hearing on September 16, please listen in and/or submit comments to the department by September 26.  Your suggestions and comments are necessary to protect our environment and improve our economy. 

Without you as partners, we can’t protect our natural resources and environment nearly as effectively, without you as partners, we can’t modernize as quickly, and without you as partners we can’t build Maine’s economy.

The Governor and I know that whether in rural or urban Maine, our economy improves when our environment improves so thank you in advance for engaging in our process and please know that we will continue to find ways to collaborate and partner to move Maine forward. 

On July 24, the Shoreland Zoning Stakeholder group reconvened to discuss comments submitted regarding the working draft of Chapter 1000 posted May 9.

There was a lively discussion about the statutory changes that are being worked into the draft, including:

• New expansion standards for nonconforming structures (read more in the Summer News)
• Keeping the timber harvesting standards that are in effect where local municipalities adopted statewide standards, and removing the old standards that are no longer in effect where local municipalities repealed them
• Required contractor certification

Other changes proposed are derived from both the 2011 stakeholder process and from existing Department policy on how current standards are administered, including standards that clarify replanting requirements:

• Removal of storm-damaged, dead and hazard trees
• Removal of invasive species
• Review of shoreline stabilization projects

These discussions generated many comments. The official rulemaking draft was posted on Wednesday, August 27. The public hearing will take place on Tuesday, September 16 at 1:00 PM in Augusta. If you have comments on Chapter 1000 rulemaking, please contact Mark Margerum.

Recent presentation requests stressed water quality concerns. For this Story Series, we focus on successful actions we can take on the land to maintain and improve water quality.

Potential pollution on the land does not stay put. It washes away in the rain, but it doesn’t just go away. Pollution runs off with stormwater, picking up more pollutants along its way to water bodies and wetlands. Even marine water quality is being affected by runoff.

Each year the Department funds projects, conducts trainings and publishes materials to help Maine citizens take actions to reduce nonpoint source pollution. This is the pollution that doesn’t come from one identifiable source, but comes from many sources all across a watershed. A little bit here and there in a watershed adds up to a lot of pollution flowing to one water body or wetland at the bottom of the watershed.

This year’s Nonpoint Source Pollution Report highlights 12 watershed projects completed in 2013. Over $1.5 million was spent to maintain and improve water quality, a drop in the bucket compared to the billions of dollars generated from Maine’s waters each year.

You can take action on your own land, and guide landowners in your community to these helpful resources:

• The Buffer Handbook for planting or enhancing healthy vegetation buffers.
• Erosion and Sediment Control Best Management Practices for stabilizing chronic and temporary soil disturbance.
• Stormwater Best Management Practices including raingardens and other vegetation designs.
• Forestry Best Management Practices for foresters, loggers and woodlot owners.

Over the years, you have probably gotten to know your regional staff member, but did you know we work as a team behind the scenes? We’re constantly checking in with one another to ensure consistency statewide in the assistance that we provide you. Now you get to learn more about us!

Colin Clark became Shoreland Zoning Coordinator in December 2012, and he assists municipalities in Central Maine. Moving to shoreland zoning seemed like a good progression, after 14 years with the Department working in Air and then Field Services.

Why Shoreland Zoning? “I had developed a great rapport with municipalities. Now I get to work more closely with local officials and landowners in order to make a larger positive impact,” Colin said. “Working in shoreland zoning allows me to implement laws that protect environmental services that can’t be valued other than by those who want to use them. Recreation is an example, and my personal recreational interests also led me to working in these fields.”

Favorite outdoor activities? “Whether I’m getting out with just my wife or with the whole family, we’re doing very much the same outdoor activities. While less often these days, I continue to capitalize on opportunities to go fly fishing. Boating and water sports are great for involving the entire family. I also spend a lot of time hunting and water fowling. I gather most of the enjoyment from seeing the retrieving dogs do what they’ve come to be proficient at after spending hundreds or thousands of hours training.”

Favorite state fair? “The family really enjoys the Litchfield fair, because it is more geared toward younger kids. There are also a lot of interactive type activities, including animals. It’s just an older-style fair, with agricultural and craft contests.”

Vacation plans? “We’re planning the first family trip to Florida this year, so the kids can experience Orlando. We’ve got plans for fall activities in the northwestern part of the state, to do some hunting and fishing with the family.”

Toward which Shoreland Zoning Purpose do you most gravitate? “‘To conserve natural beauty and open space,’ because this one ties together all the others. This is important to me, because I want my kids, their kids, and their kids’ kids, to be able to do what I did as a kid. My father and I would go to a stream to trout fish. Once, I got to the stream first, and I saw a mother bear and cub on the other side. The waterfall provided us cover, so they didn’t smell or hear us, but I was scared and ran as soon as I saw them. My father calmly took us back down to the stream to watch them.”

Best part of the job? “Interacting with individuals, landowners, municipalities and internally to help people solve issues they have. There aren’t a lot of positions where the work has a direct impact to natural resources. Even though 20 years from now no one will remember or know who I am, I know that my work will have had an impact on the natural resources we love and enjoy.”