Demand for Maine trails grants remains high in second round of funding
A cross country skier moves along a trail Jan. 2 at Quarry Road Trails in Waterville. The city received nearly $250,000 from the first round of the Maine Trails Program for improvements on the popular network. (Anna Chadwick/Staff Photographer)
For the second year in a row, demand for grants from the Maine Trails Program far exceeds the amount of money available.
In 2024, voters overwhelmingly supported a $30 million bond for the design and development of trails for outdoor recreation and active transportation. The state has until 2034 to spend the money and can allocate up to $7.5 million in grants every year.
If the high level of interest continues, however, the money will likely be gone by 2029.
“We’ll be out of funding by the end of four years,” said Adam Fisher, who manages the program. “That’s coming up soon.”
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Last year, the state received 108 applications for the first round of grants, he said. The total amount requested was more than $17 million. That was more than double the maximum amount available in each year of the program.
Ultimately, 44 projects across 15 counties received awards. They span a wide range of trail uses, including hiking, ATV and snowmobile riding, paddling and adaptive recreation.
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An advisory committee is now reviewing the second round of applications, which were due in July. Fisher said the state received more than 65 applications from all 16 counties and more than $10.5 million in requests. He expects that winners will be announced in September.
The maximum grant is $250,000, and the state requires that all projects have a local match of 10% in cash or in-kind donations.
Steve Kasacek is the director of trail development at the Outdoor Sport Institute, which got a $250,000 grant from the program to expand trails in the Katahdin region. He is also the president of the leadership group of the Maine Trails Coalition, a network that formed in 2019 and advocated for the bond. Stakeholders are already talking about what to do when the grant money is gone, he said.
“We are practically halfway through this thing,” Kasacek said. “We need to be thinking about what’s next.”
Maine, unlike some other states, does not have reliable, ongoing funding for these projects, said Angela Twitchell, who is the senior director of community and government relations at the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, which got $250,000 from the program to make improvements to the Boot Head preserve in Lubec, and who also oversees the Maine Land Trust Network.
“It’s the nut we just haven’t cracked,” she said.
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Pete Didisheim, advocacy director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said other states approach the issue in a variety of ways. He’s keeping a close eye on Massachusetts, where voters will decide this fall whether to direct a portion of existing sales tax revenue to multiple conservation causes; and Colorado, which is considering a similar referendum.
“As these projects are completed, there will be ribbon cuttings and user experiences that I believe are going to motivate lawmakers and the state as a whole to figure out, how do we continue to provide ongoing investment in this emerging and important component of our current and future economy?” Didisheim said.
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Tagged: outdoors in maine, trails
Megan Gray covers the outdoors and tourism at the Portland Press Herald. A Midwest native, she moved to Maine in 2016. She has written about presidential politics and local government, jury trials and. More by Megan Gray
