NMDC proposes grant to reduce animal impact

Northern Maine Development Commission held an executive board of directors meeting on June 21 at the Lakeview Restaurant in St. Agatha.
The meeting began with the board adopting operation plan for the 2007 fiscal year which included looking at the work plan and approving the budgets of each of their departments.
    After reviewing their operations plan, the board added Melony LeShane, Timothy Poitras and Bruce Hussey to the Northern Maine Empowerment Council.
The board then approved application for the Davis Foundation Grant to help reduce the impact of nuisance animals on Aroostook County. In recent years, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has seen a large increase of complaints on nuisance animals, mostly black bear, coming close to residential areas to forage for food. In statistics presented during the evening, the IF&W stated that Maine has 23,000 black bear, the “highest population” in the lower 48 states.
With the grant money, NMDC plans to create an education program for waste removers and the general public to help them to reduce their contact with the wild animals. Second, the board plans to create a pilot program to assist the waste disposal committee with purchasing roll-off containers which will discourage nuisance animals from feeding on trash and discourage them from visiting populated areas.
Finally, the board turned the Aroostook County Tourism committee into a standing committee. The current Aroostook County Tourism committee will be dissolved at their next meeting.