Feds cut $9M for Down East coastal restoration project
May 8—Maine has lost $9 million it was awarded to reduce flooding and restore fish habitat Down East, making the project another victim of the Trump administration's continued efforts to cut federal spending.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration notified the Maine Department of Marine Resources in April that the project was an "overuse of taxpayer dollars" and no longer "relevant" to the administration's priorities.
The grant funding was meant to elevate a road in Addison so it wouldn't flood and to add a culvert that would help fish and lobster swim from the ocean into a salt marsh along the Pleasant River. The effort is part of a larger, $30 million to $40 million project to restore tidal flow in that area after it was blocked in the 1940s.
The termination has alarmed state legislators who say their Down East communities are among the "most vulnerable" in the state to rising sea levels.
"The towns in the project area are not only dependent on fisheries but are also critically underserved communities," state Sen. Marianne Moore, R-Washington, and Rep. Tiffany Strout, R-Harrington, wrote in a letter to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, urging her to help reinstate the funds. "(These) recent actions by the U.S. Department of Commerce will harm our communities in Maine."
The Department of Marine Resources also receives around $20 million annually from the federal government for its scientific work. Deirdre Gilbert, the department's director of policy and management, told lobstermen at a recent meeting that the department is worried that it will soon take more hits to its federal funding.
SLASHING AWAY
Timothy Carrigan, the acting director of NOAA, said in the April letter that the agency was rescinding the Maine grant "to streamline and reduce the cost and size of the federal government."
"The stated goal and description of the program — restoration of salt marsh and related effects — fall outside of the current direction NOAA is taking regarding habitat restoration at this time," Carrigan wrote.
Several other NOAA programs have been frozen or cut, and a draft of the 2026 federal budget proposes reducing the agency's $6 billion budget by about 25%, according to NPR. That would include cuts to national grant programs for habitat restoration, KUOW reports.
It is unclear whether Maine is the only state to have this kind of grant rescinded. NOAA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
WHAT'S GOING AWAY
NOAA awarded the Department of Marine Resources the $9 million last July.
The project would have focused on infrastructure improvements to the Addison Road in Columbia — west of Jonesport — where an offshoot stream of the Pleasant River is causing "significant roadway flooding" due to critical structural issues with the crossing's two culverts.
And as sea levels continue to rise, the Department of Marine Resources predicts there will be more flooding at nearby fire stations and, as a result, emergency response times will increase. The work would have replaced the road crossing, raised the adjacent roadways, and relocated wells and septic systems.
"The rebuilt crossing would have also allowed for future upstream passage and increased nursery habitats for recreationally and commercially valuable fish species such as rainbow smelt, American lobster, groundfish and shellfish," said Carl Wilson, Maine's new marine resources commissioner.
The Department of Marine Resources had not yet spent any of the $9 million, Nichols, the department's spokesperson, said.
TAKING ACTION
Collins, a Republican, has so far intervened on a handful of funding cuts aimed at Maine. She stepped in when the Trump administration rescinded funding for the Maine Sea Grant and U.S. Department of Agricultures grants for the University of Maine — both of which were restored.
And on May 2, she publicly expressed "serious objections" with Trump's 2026 budget proposal.
Strout and Moore, the Down East legislators, have called on her to step in once again.
"We have been very impressed in your successful intervention to get funding reinstated for the Maine Sea Grant and other programs," they wrote. "There is no advocate more effective for our state than you and your office. We would appreciate your efforts getting the ... grant funding reinstated."
The flooding, they said, has harmed local ecosystems and led to the death of a constituent in back to back storms in January 2024.
"Addison and Columbia are ranked as "most vulnerable" in Maine's Coastal Risk Explorer that shows social vulnerability to sea level rise in coastal communities," they wrote.
It is unclear whether Collins is taking action; her office did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
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