The Riverfront Community Development Bond Promotes Sustainable Development Along Maine’s Rivers
Communities across the state have rediscovered clean and healthy rivers as a key to increasing economic opportunities and preserving Maine’s way of life. To seize this opportunity, leverage community investments, and bring about river-based economic revitalization projects, a bi-partisan group of legislators introduced a Riverfront Community Development Bond. With more than 30,000 miles of rivers in the state, and more than half of Maine citizens living in riverfront communities, the potential benefits of a river bond are enormous.
The lives of Maine people have always been intimately intertwined with the region's waterways.
- For thousands of years, Native Americans used Maine’s rivers for travel, food, and commerce.
- In the 1800’s rivers like the Penobscot, Kennebec and Androscoggin yielded tremendous catches of river herring, sturgeon and salmon and later powered the saw mills, tanneries and textile mills that led Maine into the industrial era.
- In many cases, water quality declined and populations of our once legendary fisheries suffered.
- Yet over the past 35 years, thanks in part to the Clean Water Act, the health of Maine rivers has improved dramatically.
In Old Town, the development of a small park and gazebo, a restaurant, and the conversion of a mill into elderly housing have drawn people back to the banks of the Penobscot River.
In recent years, it is as if Maine citizens are seeing our rivers anew. In many rivers across the state, people can once again swim, fish, and canoe, and local communities are intent on re-vitalizing their riverfronts to improve the quality of life in their towns. Habitat restoration projects on rivers across the state have begun to bring back long-diminished runs of sea-run fish and have helped to make our river ecosystems healthier and more vibrant.
Towns are recognizing that their riverfronts
can provide another whole set of important economic and cultural amenities.
The Riverfront Community Development Bond will create a competitive grants program to support voluntary, community-driven projects across Maine. The River Bond will:
- Promote and enhance environmentally sustainable economic activity along rivers;
- Help local communities revitalize their riverfronts by transforming run-down areas along rivers into productive use;
- Restore and improve habitat for fish and wildlife;
- Develop and promote a range of public uses supporting new jobs, public access, boating and fishing;
- Allow communities to invest in riverfront parks and trails; and
- Leverage other private and public resources (All projects will require at least a $2 match for every $1 from this fund).
For too long, the tremendous economic and natural values of Maine’s rivers have gone unrealized.
The Riverfront Community Development Bond will help ensure our rivers remain healthy while also promoting community revitalization and compatible economic development, bringing economic returns year after year, and improving the quality of life for Maine citizens.
Maine’s rivers will again be the lifeblood of healthy communities.