Conservation & Forestry. Maine Department Of Agriculture

Conservation & Forestry, Maine Department of Agriculture, a U.S. state government entity headquartered in Augusta, Maine, acts as a federal grant recipient (96% of recent awards) delivering forest health protection, agricultural regulatory services, wildfire preparedness, and outdoor recreation development across Maine in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The department's federal footprint centers on grant work rather than contracts. DACF received a $20,503 purchase order from the Natural Resources Conservation Service in September 2025 to review and analyze conservation plans and practices in Maine. However, the preponderance of DACF's federal relationship involves cooperative agreements and project grants for conservation, forestry, and agricultural protection work. Recent representative grants include a $12 million USDA Forest Service Forest Health Protection grant (awarded March 2025, completing January 2030) to fund Maine Eastern Spruce Budworm Early Intervention across state, private, and tribal lands; a $10 million USDA Forest Service Forest Health Protection award (May 2026, completing March 2030) for spruce budworm early intervention and treatment framework; a $3.27 million USDA Forest Service Cooperative Forestry Assistance grant (May 2025, completing June 2029) funding forest stewardship, forest health protection, urban and community forestry, state fire capacity, and volunteer fire capacity programs; and a $5 million USDA Inflation Reduction Act Landscape Scale Restoration grant (January 2025, completing September 2029) providing cost-share and technical assistance to non-industrial private forest landowners for participation in carbon offset and ecosystem services markets.

The department's customer concentration skews heavily toward USDA programs and interior conservation initiatives. The top five funding agencies account for 63% of recent awards: USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (170 awards), USDA Food and Nutrition Service (122 awards combined across grant divisions), Department of Interior National Park Service (69 awards), USDA Forest Service Region 9–Eastern Region (54 awards), and EPA Region 1 (pesticide enforcement cooperative agreements). The National Park Service dominates outdoor recreation infrastructure grants, funding Land and Water Conservation Fund projects across Maine municipalities for trail renovation, park development, and recreation facility improvements. APHIS coordinates pest and disease detection surveys, including cooperative agreements for European larch canker monitoring, emerald ash borer trapping, honey bee disease surveillance, and seed potato nematode certification. USDA Food and Nutrition Service awards fund administration of TEFAP, CSFP, Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program, and poultry grading services.

DACF operates as a prime recipient on nearly all grants and does not sit on federal contract vehicles. The department does subcontract or subaward portions of federal funding. Recent sub-recipients include the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (Appalachian Trail maintenance in Maine, awarded March 2026), Maine Emergency Management Agency (natural disaster recovery, bridge and facility repairs across state parks and public lands, multiple awards in 2025), University of Maine Cooperative Extension (agricultural pest surveys and livestock health assessment), and local municipalities and the Town of Carrabassett Valley (outdoor recreation development). These subawards reflect the department's role as a pass-through entity administering state-level federal programs and implementing multi-agency conservation initiatives.

Activity has remained relatively stable year over year at 46–58 awards annually over the past five years, with 11 awards recorded in the first weeks of 2026. The recompete window is minimal—only 34 awards with ultimate completion dates within the next twenty-four months carry a combined potential value of $21 thousand, indicating that most DACF grants have multi-year performance periods and recompetes are staggered. The combined potential value across all awards is $6.1 million, although obligated dollars total $273.1 million, reflecting the department's role in distributing federal formula grants and commodity programs to lower-tier recipients and beneficiaries across Maine.