Recreational Boating Grant Announcement

Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry's Division of Parks and Public Lands is pleased to announce that it is seeking grant proposals to improve recreational boating access to the waters of the State of Maine for fiscal year 2014, which begins July 1, 2013 and ends June 30, 2014.

"With 2,300 great ponds, 32,000 miles of streams and rivers and over 3,000 miles of coastline, the State of Maine offers unparalleled opportunities for recreational boating," said Governor Paul R. LePage. "However, with only 460 assured public recreational boat access sites, we need to do more to ensure the public has adequate access to these waters."

The Maine Legislature established the Boating Facilities Fund in 1963, which is administered by the Division of Parks and Public Lands, Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry and is funded with the state tax on gasoline used by recreational motor boats. The Division uses these funds to acquire, develop and renovate recreational boat access sites and to place and maintain navigational buoys on nearly 50 inland lakes and ponds.

The Division's philosophy is that boating access sites are more efficiently managed at the local level and so accomplishes most of its mission of providing boat access through a grant process.