Senior Advisor Visits Maine   

(above center) NRCS Senior Advisor to the Chief Michael Sanders and Rural Development Chief of Staff, Washington, D.C. Jim Fitzgerald cut the ribbon at the new USDA Service Center facility in Bangor, Maine, as local, State and Federal officials look on (NRCS photo -- click to enlarge) (from left) Maine NRCS State Conservationist Joyce Swartzendruber, Frank Thomas of Thomas Vegetable Farm, Michael Sanders, and district conservationist Dan Schmidt (NRCS photo -- click to enlarge)

NRCS, the Penobscot County Soil and Water Conservation District, the Heart of Maine Resource Conservation & Development Council, and USDA Service Center partners recently hosted an open house attended by Senior Advisor to the Chief Michael Sanders.  The event gave the public an opportunity to see the new Bangor, Maine, USDA Service Center designed by architect Judy Graebert.

“Visitors approaching the front entrance can immediately see this is a USDA facility thus giving the long building a focal point,” said Graebert. “

Following the Open House, Sanders along with district conservationist Dan Schmidt and Maine NRCS State Conservationist Joyce Swartzendruber visited Penobscot County NRCS projects including Crane Brothers — one of the most progressive chip stock potato farms in Maine, Stonyvale — a fourth-generation Fogler family dairy and the largest dairy farm in the county, the Thomas Vegetable Farm, Veazland Farms, and the Sebasticook River Restoration Project — a Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) dam removal and fish passage site.

The second day, Sanders traveled to Downeast Maine to see more WHIP fish passage projects intended to reduce stream habitat degradation resulting from poorly designed stream crossings.  Getting NRCS help are rivers involved in the Gulf of Maine Distinct Population Segment of (federally “endangered”) Atlantic salmon.
For more information contact Elaine Tremble, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 207-990-9569.