The Maine Vernal Pool Special Area Management Plan (Maine VP SAMP) is voluntary mitigation option for projects impacting vernal pools in a specified area called the Designated Development Area.  To use the Maine VP SAMP, an applicant pays a fee to the municipality which is then transferred to a 3rd party land conservation organization. Impacts to vernal pools are allowed in this Designated Development Area in exchange for payment of a fee that is used to conserve high quality vernal poolscapes in the rural area identified in the municipality’s comprehensive plan.

The Maine VP SAMP was developed through extensive collaboration between state and federal regulators, state and federal resource agencies, vernal pool ecologists, natural resource economists, real estate developers and appraisers, municipal planners, municipal economic development agencies, and local land trusts.  Over a period of seven years, these stakeholders met regularly to craft this innovative approach to natural resource regulation and protection.

The Maine Vernal Pool SAMP allows vernal pool impacts in certain developed areas of a municipality in exchange for conservation of high value vernal poolscapes in the municipality’s rural area.  It supports a municipality’s goals for growth, compact development and conservation; allows development of parcels otherwise limited by the presence of vernal pools; provides a funding stream for land conservation and conserves landscapes that provide multiple values including increased resilience to a changing climate.

A municipality adopts benchmark criteria including among other things, the area in which the Maine VP SAMP can be used, ordinance language that provides the authority to collect a fee and transfer the fee to a 3rd party land conservation organization.

Use of the Maine Vernal Pool SAMP is voluntary on the part of a developer needing a vernal pool permit for a project that is located in the municipal Designated Development Area.  The developer provides an appraisal of the parcel that is used to determine the fee that the developer pays to the municipal for the impacts to vernal pools.

The fee is transferred to a land conservation organization that has entered into an agreement with the municipality to undertake conservation of vernal poolscapes according to vernal pool conservation criteria found in the Maine VP SAMP.

The US Army Corps regulates vernal pools under the Clean Water Act.  The State of Maine has a General Permit for wetlands regulation with the Army Corps and regulates wetlands through the Maine Natural Resource Protection Act (NRPA).  NRPA allows municipalities to request delegated authority for some or all of the resources regulated therein. To implement the Maine VP SAMP, a municipality must meet benchmark criteria and receive delegated authority from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to issue vernal pools permits in its Designated Development Area.

Use of the Maine Vernal Pool SAMP is voluntary on the part of an applicant needing a vernal pool permit for a project that is located in the municipal Designated Development Area.  The applicant provides an appraisal of the parcel that is used to determine the fee that is paid to the municipality for the impacts to vernal pools.  Instead of paying the fee, the applicant can undertake permittee-responsible mitigation which must meet all the vernal pool conservation criteria spelled out in the Maine VP SAMP; be approved by the municipal legislative authority; be accepted by the 3rd party land conservation organization.