Maine Conservation Voters Education Fund

  • Purpose:  To bring Maine’s environmental community together to develop a five year vision, policy framework, and implementation plan for addressing Maine’s most pressing environmental challenges
  • Partners: Healthy Community Coalition, The Center for Community GIS, and the Mountain Counties Heritage Council.
  • Award: $30,000, 1 year request
  • Read the Proposal (PDF)

    • MCVEF - energy self-sustainability - Stetson Mountain windfarm.

    The next five years will be critical to enacting many of the thoughtful and forward-thinking policies outlined by the Governor’s Council on Quality of Place.  This time period will also usher in a new gubernatorial administration wielding enormous power to set conservation policy for the state. 

    The Maine Conservation Voters Education Fund (MCVEF) is setting the stage for the next gubernatorial administration by bringing Maine’s environmental community together to develop a five year vision, policy framework and implementation plan for addressing and solving Maine’s pressing environmental challenges. One of the key project goals is to ensure that the recommendations of the Governor’s Council on Maine’s Quality of Place live beyond the current administration. 

    As the leader of Maine’s Environmental Priorities Coalition (EPC), MCVEF is uniquely positioned to effectively facilitate Maine’s vibrant and diverse environmental community to advance a clear and common vision for protecting the “majestic mountains, unbroken forests, open fields, wild rivers, pristine lakes, a celebrated coast, picturesque downtowns…”[1] that form an essential part of our Quality of Place.

    Representing 26 organizations and a combined membership of over 100,000 people, the EPC has been working effectively together since 2004.  The composition of the EPC spans the state, bringing smaller organizations like the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and Friends of Casco Bay together with sizeable state-wide groups like Maine Audubon and the Natural Resources Council of Maine. 

    MCVEF is well-positioned to build on past successes and move the EPC beyond the legislative arena to increase impact for Quality of Place.  While public support for conservation in Maine remains high, the present economic situation underscores the need for the environmental community to remain on the frontlines educating and engaging concerned citizens, policymakers, and candidates about innovative policies that protect our clean air and water, conserved land, sustainable energy and healthy communities.

    The results of the vision and policy framework will be printed and widely distributed to combined memberships, candidates, policymakers, philanthropists, business leaders, and the media in a report with the suggested working title – Building Maine’s Environmental Legacy:  A strategic policy framework for 2010 and beyond. 

    The strategic vision, policy framework and implementation plan will serve as a collective roadmap for the EPC and will provide the longer term guidance needed to advance bold solutions at the policymaking level. It will help MCVEF guide the EPC’s yearly policy agenda and advocacy efforts. Most importantly, it will enable Maine’s environmental community, with the increased engagement of its citizens, to be more effective in its campaigns, communications, and message and ultimately in the successes it achieves for our Quality of Place. 

    MCVEF is leading a dynamic long-term process that protects the good health, good jobs, and the quality of life that our environment provides for all of us. 

    [1] Governor’s Council on Maine’s Quality of Place, 1st Report (2007) 8.

     

    About the 2009 Grantees

    Casco Bay Estuary Partnership

     GrowSmart Maine (PDF)

     Healthy Community Coalition 

    Maine Conservation Voters Education Fund 

    Maine Development Foundation 

    Maine Farmland Trust 

    Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine,

    Trust for Public Land 

     

    Learn More

    EFN’s Quality of Place Initiative