Chickadee Checkoff Is Love Of Maine’s Wildlife Expressed

Do you feed the birds? I do and I love seeing all the different species coming in to have a snack. Ever wonder who track and protects these little guys? That would be the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife here in the great state of Maine. It is their desire and purpose to conserve all of Maine’s wildlife for us and future Mainers yet to be.

Now pretty much everybody knows that the funding for management of game creatures like deer and bear and so on are funded by hunting licenses. So who pays for the management of the ones we love but don’t hunt? The answer is we do, or we can help by donating via our tax returns by checking off the chickadee on our tax forms. Why do these little ones need looking after? To quote the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife,

“Protecting these valuable species is vital as they comprise the vast majority of Maine’s diverse wildlife and fill valuable roles by contributing to water purification, pollination, and prey for larger species. However, many of these species face population declines due to habitat loss, pollution, roadkill, and other factors.”

Much of the funding for the research and recovery effort of our nonhuntable little residents comes from programs such as the federal State Wildlife Grant, but you should know that these monies are only accessible to Maine with a state match. Many state matching dollars typically come from the Loon conservation license plate and volunteer contributions like the chickadee check off. By law, funds from the Chickadee Check-off and Loon Plates can only be used for conservation efforts for such species.  When used as match for a federal grant, this dedicated fund is essentially doubled or tripled.

And it isn’t just for birds and field mice monies from the State Wildlife Grant, matched with the Check-Off funds, have helped projects directed at conserving a plethora of species, including bald eagles, peregrine falcons, piping plovers, great blue herons, Canada lynx, several species of bats, Blanding’s turtles, several rare freshwater mussels and New England cottontail ( that’s right! Wild Bunnies!!). Funds from the Check-Off have also aided citizen science projects like the Maine Butterfly Survey and the Maine Amphibian and Reptile Atlasing Project.

Now because this is the state and therefore nothing is ever completely easy the chickadee checkoff is a separate form to file with your state taxes but no worries here is a link to the form.