Maine is in the middle of writing its once-a-decade wildlife action plan, a conservation blueprint that will guide funding decisions, science and protection efforts.

And, for the first time, the plan will emphasize the critical role of habitat protection, and consider how climate change affects local plants and animals.

The state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s 2025 plan will assess the health of Maine’s 1,500 native plants, in addition to Maine’s 15,000 native wildlife species. The 2005 and 2015 plans only considered animals species. The new plan will also make use of new climate science not available for past plans.

“You can’t talk about what’s happening with saltmarsh sparrows or moose without talking about sea level rise or the growing winter tick population,” said state wildlife biologist Alex Fish, who is overseeing Maine’s wildlife action plan update. “Climate is the major threat to some, not all, but some of Maine’s at-risk species.”

Every 10 years, 48 states and two territories update their wildlife action plans to identify ways to protect common and imperiled species before they become rare and thus harder, and more costly, to preserve. The plans must be submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by October.

At the heart of every state plan is its list of species of greatest conservation need, which serves as a kind of watch list for plants and animals that aren’t yet threatened or endangered but are likely in decline. Making a list of at-risk species opens the door to federal and state funds for further study and conservation action.

In 2015, Maine’s plan identified 378 such species, from bog lemmings to saltmarsh sparrows, and more than 600 conservation actions to help these targeted species recover, ranging from wildlife reintroduction and habitat restoration to managing wildlife diseases and invasive predators.

In 2022, Maine submitted an amendment to its 2015 wildlife action plan to add 285 plant species to its list because Congress was considering a bill that would have increased grant funding for plants and animals of greatest conservation need. But the bill, Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, died in the Senate.

The updated 2025 plan will assign listed species to one of three categories: those at risk of disappearing from the state, those in significant decline, and understudied species that could be in trouble. In 2015, Maine identified 58 species in danger of disappearing, 131 as high priority and 189 as understudied.

The 2025 plan will consider a wide range of potential threats, from industrialization to fishing to logging. In a public survey on potential threats and actions, however, global warming and sea level rise aren’t mentioned by name. “Changes in temperature regimes” and “changes in precipitation and hydrological regimes” are listed instead.

Fish said Maine will be careful about its word choice during the plan revision, but will not censor the science that shows predicted sea level rise and warming land and sea temperatures are affecting Maine’s wildlife. The final plan will be cited when Maine applies for federal wildlife grant funding.

Maine gets about $564,000 a year in congressionally approved federal funding to protect the 378 species of greatest conservation need identified in its 2015 plan, according to Nathan Webb, the director of DIFW’s wildlife division, when speaking to a group of plan collaborators last fall.

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget would currently eliminate that funding, Fish said. Luckily, Maine gets most of its funding to implement the wildlife action plan actions — or about $13 million a year — from excise taxes on guns and sporting equipment. That funding source remains secure, at least for now, Fish said.

The agency also receives limited funding from the state’s general fund budget, the state’s loon license plate and the chickadee checkoff program that allows taxpayers to donate money to state wildlife programs, Webb said. But it’s the excise tax funding that “really pays the bills,” he said.

SUCCESS STORIES

Past species listings and conservation actions have fueled dozens of wildlife success stories.

For example, reintroduction and habitat work has helped Maine’s only true rabbit species, the New England cottontail, regain a toehold in southern Maine, Fish said. Forest managers now have a manual teaching them how to protect wood turtle habitat.

For the northern bog lemming, a small vole-like critter once considered one of Maine’s rarest mammals, the additional study born out of its listing in the plan led biologists to reconsider its rarity. DNA analysis of its droppings suggest its diet is not limited as once believed, and may therefore have a broader range of habitat, Fish said.

The attention from a 2015 listing helped secure funding to survey and monitor the population of the purple sandpiper, a shorebird that overwinters on Maine’s coast. It is not considered threatened or endangered, but it is declining, with state surveys showing a 49% decrease between 2004 and 2014.

But not every conservation action listed in the 2015 plan could be implemented, and not all those that were have proven successful at managing a threat.

White nose syndrome is still killing Maine’s cave-dwelling bats despite the installation of gates to prevent human disturbance at winter hibernation spots.

The agency is developing the draft plan in collaboration with stakeholder groups, including other state agencies, environmental groups and sporting groups, Fish said. The public was invited to suggest list updates in February, and can suggest habitat list changes through this Saturday.