Natural resource protection receives just a fraction of state tax revenue, yet the Departments of Conservation, Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Marine Resources and Environmental Protection account for more than a third of the total state jobs Gov. John Baldacci proposes eliminating to mitigate a projected billion-dollar budget shortfall

The choices – 116 full-time equivalent jobs – have some observers asking whether natural resource management and protection are being targeted unfairly, and how these funding losses might affect Maine’s environment in the long term.

Natural resource management can be an “easy target,” because cuts are politically less painful, said several state officials who asked not to be identified. While environmentalists will fight for resource protection, these departments just don’t have the public appeal of education or health care, they said.

One state official said, “It all comes down to who screams the loudest.”

All departments were asked to make the same sacrifice – flat funding – and commissioners played a major role in selecting how their departments would be cut, said Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey.

In total, Baldacci’s plan for flat funding state departments over the next two fiscal years will result in the loss of more than $14 million for natural resource departments. That’s a dollar figure that, at about 2 percent of the total budget cut, is approximately in balance with natural resources’ piece of the General Fund pie.

But with tiny staffs and limited budgets, the across-the-board cuts hit the departments hard. For example, the Land Use Regulation Commission is losing 20 percent of its staff, while the Marine Patrol is losing 11 percent. The Warden Service is losing 9 percent.

Staff-heavy departments that focus on providing public services and invest a majority of their budgets in employees struggle to meet flat funding, because so much of their funding goes to pay rapidly increasing employee health care costs, said Rebecca Wyke, commissioner of administration and financial services.

“They could feel the pinch a little bit harder than the others,” Wyke said.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife tied with Conservation for the highest total losses, at 42 full-time equivalent jobs apiece. Marine Resources lost funding for 12 jobs, and Environmental Protection for 10.

Of the total 116 jobs, 69 are filled and scheduled for layoffs, while most of the others are empty positions. About a dozen jobs would be shifted to outside funding sources such as federal grants.

Baldacci asked commissioners to avoid laying off employees or reducing services whenever possible, but with tight budgets, both impacts are immediate and unavoidable for natural resource agencies.

The 116 jobs are “disproportionate,” said Cathy Johnson of the Natural Resources Council of Maine. “These are not big, bloated programs. If you’re efficient, and do a good job, you still get cut.”

The Department of Conservation has been asked to cut $8 million over the two-year budget cycle.

“There’s nothing we can do but cut positions,” said Dawn Gallagher, outgoing deputy commissioner. “You can’t take that large of a reduction and not expect impacts.”

If LURC loses a fifth of its staff, service will go downhill.

“Either it’s going to take a really long time for the people to get permits, or there’s going to be insufficient review. Neither is a good option,” Johnson said.

To preserve public services such as granting permits, all the natural resource agencies are cutting back on scientific research. That means fewer surveys of wildlife populations and less-frequent water testing to maintain river and lake quality.

“We’ll lose some good data, some of the science that helps us do our work,” said Brooke Barnes, deputy commissioner at the DEP. “We’re still going to get the work done, it will just take a heck of a lot longer.”

Hunting permits may be doled out more conservatively because of a lack of population data, said Mark Latti, DIF&W spokesman

And some clam flats might have to remain closed because biologists are too busy to test for harmful algae and bacteria to guarantee public safety, said Lou Flagg, deputy commissioner at the DMR.

Regulatory enforcement, the best-known part of these agencies’ missions, also will take a hit.

The Department of Conservation is planning to eliminate completely the three-person office in charge of enforcing the Forest Practices Act. The program was created several years ago to provide education as well as enforcement in lieu of new, stricter forestry regulations.

“Now we’re left with no new regulations and no enforcement,” Johnson said.

Marine patrol officers, game wardens and state forest rangers will be asked to cover larger territories, putting the state at risk in the case of an emergency situation like the simultaneous forest fires that broke out during the hot, dry 2002 summer, said Gallagher.

Environmental groups and state employees say they are concerned that the loss of such preventive efforts could result in long-term harm to the environment.

“It seems awfully shortsighted,” Johnson said. “It’s much harder to clean something up than to prevent it in the first place.”