© Pete Saloutos/Panoramic Images (Maine Title Image Large)
Beginning with Habitat
Beginning with Habitat, a successful collaboration among federal, state, and local agencies and non-governmental organizations, is a habitat-based approach to conserving wildlife and plant habitat on a landscape scale. The goal of the program is to maintain sufficient habitat to support all native plant and animal species currently breeding in Maine. BwH takes habitat data from multiple sources, integrates it into one package and provides each Maine town and land trust with a collection of maps and accompanying information depicting and describing various habitats of statewide and national significance found in the town or region, and with tools to implement habitat conservation in local land use planning efforts. Since its inception in 2000, Maine's Beginning with Habitat (BwH) program has met with and provided information to more than 140 cities and towns and 35 land trusts and regional planning commissions within the state. Many towns and land trusts have incorporated the information they have received from BwH into their comprehensive plans and strategic approaches to conservation.
BwH Priorities
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© The Nature Conservancy (Beginning with Habitat Focus Areas Image)
Beginning with Habitat Focus Areas
To date, collaborative efforts by state, federal, and conservation organization biologists have resulted in the designation of 140 Focus Areas of statewide ecological significance.
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Understanding Conservation Priorities: Maine Begins with Habitat
Wildlife author Will Stolzenburg outlines how, given the wild priorities of the state's hikers, outdoorsmen, hunters, and anglers, it seems quite natural to find Maine's approach to conservation Beginning with Habitat.
