To keep Maine’s farms thriving, farmers will need to adapt to the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, including excess rainfall and drought, warming temperatures, and sea level rise. With the Climate Adaptation Planning program, we can help you make a plan to address the risks that climate change may pose to your farm over the short-, medium-, and long-term.
Work with MFT staff to develop comprehensive climate adaptation plans for your farm over the course of 3 to 6 months. This program is designed to ease the uncertainty and challenges farmers face around the future impacts and risks of climate change by creating actionable, timely steps to increase your individual farm’s resilience. Climate Adaptation Plans can be a helpful way to think about longer-term planning with the support and accountability of a service provider who can help you access technical and financial resources.
The planning process uses your knowledge of your farm and available climate change projections to assess climate risks, identify and prioritize potential strategies, and set short, medium, and long-term goals for your farm. MFT staff will connect you with the expertise and resources to explore strategies to build your whole farm’s resilience through farming practices, infrastructure upgrades, and/or landscape alterations. Once you complete your plan, you are eligible to apply for a grant of up to $5,000 to implement new strategies. In addition to the grant, we can work with you to navigate a variety of other financial resources available to fund the activities in your plan.
Questions about making a Climate Adaptation Plan? Please see the CAP Process Outline for a comprehensive overview of the planning process, including timelines, focus areas, grant information, and other details on what to expect.
Climate Adaptation Planning is a process of identifying the climate risks present on a farm; assessing the impacts of those risks; identifying potential adaptation solutions; and evaluating those approaches to create a plan.
Initial Consultation - Virtual Meeting (1 hour)
MFT staff go over the planning process with the farmer and get an overview of the farm and the farmer’s goals.
Remote site analyses
MFT staff do remote analysis of the property and create maps to help in the climate risk assessment. These include a 1’ topographic map, soils map, drainage analysis, and additional maps as needed depending on the farm.
Farm Visit and In-person Risk Assessment (3-4 hours)
The farmer and MFT staff walk the farm and identify climate risks based on the farmer’s experience and observations of the land. In addition to identifying the priority risks to address, the visit may cover soil quality, erosion potential, water drainage, seasonal flooding, pest and disease pressure, and access and circulation. The visit will conclude with an initial discussion of potential adaptation strategies.
Site Visit Summary
After the visit, MFT staff provide a site visit summary as well as remote analyses for the farmer to review. A written climate risk assessment, which includes identified risks and potential adaptation approaches create the basis for the climate adaptation plan.
Follow-up meetings (in-person or online) (1-2 hours/meeting):
Follow up meetings give the farmer and MFT staff the opportunity to assess the adaptation solutions identified, and discuss additional resources that would be useful in order to evaluate approaches. This might mean connecting with particular experts, conducting additional research, or identifying potential funding sources.
Finalizing the Climate Adaptation Plan
Based on the follow-up discussions with the farmer, additional analysis and research done by both parties, MFT staff and the farmer finalize a written plan with specific adaptation solutions to implement in the near and long term.
Mini-Grant Application
Farmers can apply for a $5,000 mini-grant towards the implementation of their plan. The application includes their completed climate adaptation plan plus a project budget and short narrative.
Grants are awarded upon review by a committee of MFT staff and funds must be used by October 31 2025.
Monitoring and Evaluation
MFT staff check in with farmers during the year following the planning process to see what has been implemented on the farm and get feedback on the usefulness of the planning process.
Overall the process takes around 3 months, depending on the farmers’ availability.
The overall time commitment for the planning process is typically 6-10 hours over no more than 3 months. MFT staff will do most of the work in the process; however this is a process that is most effective with active participation from the farmer. Your participation includes an initial conversation about the farm and property, a farm visit with MFT staff, 1-2 follow up meetings, plan review, and application for the mini-grant should you decide to apply.
MFT does planning work year-round but understands that the winter months are often a time many farmers find the time to dedicate towards planning. A site visit is best done during the growing season though the rest of the planning process can be done in the off-season.
If desired, MFT staff try to connect farmers with others doing climate adaptation plans at the same time to provide an opportunity for peer learning and support.
Any farm may apply to complete a climate adaptation plan. Depending on the volume of applications, we may not be able to work with every farm at a given time.
Applications for the Climate Resilience Planning program are currently closed. Maine Farmland Trust staff will review applications in November, and contact applying farms in early December. You might also be interested in checking out our Climate Resilience Assistance Grants.
Please contact Sav Eades (seades@mainefarmlandtrust.org) with any questions or for more details.
