Augusta, January 19, 2012 – The Maine Downtown Center (MDC) is pleased to announce it has received a $50,000 grant to support its Green Downtowns program, now in its third year.

This funding has been made possible through the Environmental Funders Network’s (EFN) Initiative: “From Vision to Action: A Commitment to Maine’s Quality of Place.” MDC’s Green Downtowns program was created to strengthen the link between the natural and built environments in Maine’s downtowns, making them more environmentally friendly and ecologically conscious and building local leadership and capacity to support sustainable green initiatives.

EFN Funding for the first two years of Green Downtowns supported ten green improvement projects including pocket parks, trail connections, and LED lighting in eight Main Street Maine communities and technical planning in the form of conceptual green streetscape designs to 13 Maine Downtown Network communities.

This year, MDC is partnering with the Maine Forest Service’s Project Canopy program, GrowSmart Maine, Wright-Pierce Engineering, and its local participating downtown organizations to bring street trees to Maine communities. MDC has committed $25,000 to be matched by a $25,000 Project Canopy set aside specifically to plant downtown street trees for Main Street Maine and Maine Downtown Network Communities. Studies nationwide prove multiple economic, environmental and social values of downtown street trees.

MDC also will continue to contract with Maine Preservation to provide professional historic preservation technical assistance to downtown property owners. In years one and two, Maine Preservation’s Field Services program consulted on projects in 17 of MDC’s participating communities. Funds will also be used to continue our educational outreach with the “Good Design, Green Design” Downtown Institute session (March 16, Bath) and a Green Downtowns track at the 2012 Maine Downtown Conference scheduled for May 18 in Farmington. These training sessions are open to all and will have a focus on community health and the recycling of historic and older buildings as a policy principle and economic development tool for all communities.

Finally, with two years of case studies, grant successes, education sessions, consulting, meetings, and brainstorming around greening Maine’s historic downtowns, MDC will be engaging in a statewide marketing campaign to increase public awareness and community participation to further the critical link between the built and natural environments.

EFN’s collaborative funding initiative, “From Vision to Action: A Commitment to Maine’s Quality of Place” seeks to support projects that strengthen the link between the natural and built environments, emphasize public engagement, and take seriously the process and action elements required to build and sustain collaborations.

For more information: http://www.mdf.org/documents/Year3GreenDowntownsSummary.pdf