Coastal Access and Working Waterfronts
Access to the shoreline is vital to all of Maine’s coastal communities. Residents and visitors alike need access for a range of activities, including fishing, clamming, boating, picnicking, swimming, and exploring. One important goal of the Maine Coastal Program is to ensure that Maine communities have public access to the shore.
Below is a list of some useful programs and resources:
Grants
- Coastal Estuarine Land Conservation Program: provides state and local governments with matching funds to purchase significant coastal and estuarine lands or conservation easements in order to protect coastal and estuarine lands
- Land for Maine's Future Program: land conservation program offering land acquisition funds for qualified projects
- MDOT/Small Harbor Improvement Program: Maine Dept. of Transportation program that provides funds to protect/enhance harbor infrastructure
- Right of Way Re-discovery Program: helps communities keep track of existing
public access through small grants of approximately
$2,500 to municipalities and to land trusts working with their local town, to research
forgotten or overlooked public rights-of-way
- Shore and Harbor Planning Grants Program: grants to promote sound waterfront planning, harbor management, and balanced development of shore and harbor areas to improve marine infrastructure and assure access to the shore
- Working Waterfront Access Protection Program: The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), working with the Land for Maine’s Future (LMF) program, provides funds to help purchase, preserve and protect key properties on the coast that provide access to and support commercial fisheries activities.
Other Resources
- Accessing the Maine Coast: This website contains information to help waterfront users, coastal communities, and land owners address issues related to coastal access. The intent of this website is to offer specific tools that address specific needs.
- Coastal Enterprises, Inc.: CEI is a private, nonprofit Community Development Corporation and Community Development Financial Institution that develops job-creating natural resources and small business ventures in primarily rural regions of Maine.
- Island Institute: a membership-based community development organization focusing on the Gulf of Maine, particularly the fifteen year-round island communities off the Maine coast.
- Maine Coast Protection Initiative: increases the pace and quality of land protection by enhancing the capacity of Maine’s conservation community to preserve the unique character of the Maine coast for the benefit of the people of Maine and beyond.
- Maine Sea Grant: a state-federal partnership based at the University of Maine and sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the State of Maine.
- Working Waterfront Initiative: website dedicated to help support working waterfronts in Maine
- Working Waterfront Coalition: a statewide group of industry associations, nonprofits, state agencies, and concerned citizens formed to preserve working waterfronts
For more information on coastal access, please contact Jim Connors (207-287-8938; Jim.Connors@maine.gov).
