Conservation & Forestry. Maine Department Of Agriculture

Conservation & Forestry, Maine Department of Agriculture operates as a recipient of federal grants and cooperative agreements, managing conservation, forestry, wildlife, and food assistance programs across Maine through a portfolio dominated by cooperative agreements and formula grants from federal agriculture and interior agencies. The division functions as a state government entity within the parent Maine Department of Agriculture, headquartered in Augusta, Maine, with performance occurring throughout Maine and at specific sites including state parks, public lands, and designated wildlife refuges.

The division's federal footprint centers on cooperative agreements and project grants rather than competitively awarded contracts. Among 669 recent awards tracked in the source data, 644 are prime grants (96%) and 25 are sub-awards (4%). The combined potential value across all awards is $6.2 million, though combined obligated dollars total $274 million—reflecting the formula-grant and annually-renewed cooperative-agreement structure characteristic of state administering agencies. The division serves 34 distinct federal agencies, with the top five accounting for 63% of awards by count: the Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (178 awards), the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (71 awards), the Department of the Interior National Park Service National Office (69 awards), the Department of Agriculture Forest Service Region 9-Eastern Region (55 awards), and a second Food and Nutrition Service award line (51 awards).

Capability work concentrates on five core mission areas. Exotic pest and disease surveillance—the largest workstream—includes cooperative agreements with USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for detection surveys of European larch canker, potato cyst nematodes, emerald ash borer, honey bee pests, wood borers, bark beetles, invasive agricultural pests, and terrestrial mollusks. Representative awards include a $101,182 cooperative agreement for coordination of Maine's Cooperating Agricultural Pest Survey program under CFDA 10.025, and multiple $10,000–$20,000 detection surveys for exotic forest pests conducted under CFDA 10.025 and related APHIS authorities. Forest health and wildfire resilience work funds hazardous fuels reduction, spruce budworm early intervention, urban and community forestry, and volunteer fire department capacity. A $12 million project grant from USDA Forest Service under the Forest Health Protection program (CFDA 10.680) funds the Maine Eastern Spruce Budworm Early Intervention project through January 2030. The division also administers multiple $2–$3 million consolidated forestry grants covering forest stewardship, state fire capacity, and volunteer fire capacity programs. Outdoor recreation acquisition and development work flows through Land and Water Conservation Fund subawards to municipalities—the division passes National Park Service grants to towns for trail improvements, parking facilities, playground renovation, and park infrastructure, with individual subawards ranging from $150,000 to $2.7 million. Federal emergency food assistance and nutrition programs channel formula grants from USDA Food and Nutrition Service for TEFAP, Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, and related administration. Endangered and threatened plant recovery work includes project grants from the Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service for monitoring and management of listed species including Furbish's lousewort and small whorled pogonia. Forest conservation and land acquisition work, funded under the Forest Legacy Program (CFDA 10.676), includes $10.7 million in awards for acquisition of conservation easements and fee simple purchases on Chadbourne Tree Farm and South Bog Stream areas.

Customer concentration reflects statutory assignment of state administering agency roles. APHIS holds the largest share of awards by volume (178 awards) but a modest share by potential value; the National Park Service carries significant value through large LWCF subawards for outdoor recreation development. Activity remained steady from 2022–2026, with 55 awards in 2022, 55 in 2023, 46 in 2024, 58 in 2025, and 21 recorded through mid-October 2026 (year incomplete). Thirty-three awards face ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months, signaling recompete or renewal windows across pest surveillance, forestry, food assistance, and recreation programming.

The division subcontracts to the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Maine Conservation Corps on multiple APHIS cooperative agreements, forest stewardship projects, and emergency staffing initiatives. Sub-awards from the division itself flow to municipalities and nonprofit organizations under Land and Water Conservation Fund pass-throughs, with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and Emergency Management Agency Maine receiving sub-awards for trail maintenance and disaster recovery infrastructure repair.

Federal grant programs active in the footprint include CFDA 10.025 (Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control), 10.664 (Cooperative Forestry Assistance), 10.676 (Forest Legacy Program), 10.680 (Forest Health Protection), 10.731 (Inflation Reduction Act Landscape Scale Restoration), 15.623 (North American Wetlands Conservation Fund), 15.810 (National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program), 15.916 (Land and Water Conservation Fund Outdoor Recreation Acquisition, Development and Planning), 66.700 (Consolidated Pesticide Enforcement), 97.023 (Community Assistance Program–State Support Services Element), and multiple food assistance programs (CFDA 10.565, 10.568, 10.576). The division also administers pass-through funds under emergency supplemental appropriations (highly pathogenic avian influenza response, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law wildfire funding, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act programs).