Lumber mill (WGME)
by Allyson Lapierre, WGME
Mon, March 31st 2025 at 6:02 AM
A renewable energy project to protect Maine forests has been put on pause. Millions of federal dollars initially promised to Maine woodland owners are being blocked by the Trump administration.
Six Maine commercial woodland owners were chosen to lead a 12,000-acre climate project to enhance carbon storage in the state.
The federal government issued a $32 million grant to fund the project last year. But that funding has been frozen.
“What this is going to do is remove a lot of opportunities for diverse landowners in the state,” said Brian Milakovsky, with the New England Forestry Foundation.
The grant was promised under the Biden administration but has been blocked and put under review by the Trump administration, leaving landowners, loggers, and others in jeopardy.
“Continue to be a challenge and a constant transformation for forest landowners over the coming decades, and the competitive edge is really going to be growing high-quality sawtimber of the kind that you can sell to sawmills, veneer plants to make into long lived wood products, flooring, furniture,” Milakovsky said.
Patty Cormier with the Maine Forest Service says the pause of funding is not only impacting the future of the forestry sector, but also the state's ecosystem.
“The water, the air we breathe, the wildlife so it has wide ranging impacts. It’s just unfortunate,” Cormier said.
A part of the grant is budgeted to reimbursing Maine companies for forestry work. And without knowing if the funding is coming through, many jobs are on the line.
“We could see some disruptions to the contractors that work with some of our landowners due to the fact that these federal funds are committed, which we have been planning with landowners to you have just been frozen without warning,” Milakovsky said.
Forest agencies are optimistic that these funds will eventually come through.
“We are seeing some of the grants at the forest service open, so I'm hoping its just the federal government to go through all these grants,” Cormier said.
In the meantime, agencies are asking lawmakers for help to unfreeze the funds.