State Wildlife Agencies Receive Grants to Work With Landowners to Conserve At-risk Species; Seven Midwestern States to Receive Funding
Contacts
Valerie Fellows, 202/208-5634
Georgia Parham 812-334-4261 x 203
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced nearly $19 million in competitive funding for 37 States and Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Island fish and wildlife agencies under the Bush Administration's innovative Landowner Incentive Program (LIP). The program supports cooperative efforts with private landowners interested in conserving natural habitat for species at risk, including Federally listed endangered or threatened species and proposed or candidate species.
Seven Midwestern states – Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin -- will share more than $2.6 million in LIP grants for conservation programs for at-risk species.
"Conservation, especially conservation of imperiled species, must be a partnership between the American people and their government," said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. "By providing these grants, we empower citizens to restore habitat on their land and take other steps to protect and recover endangered, threatened and at-risk species."
LIP, funded through competitive grants with money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, establishes or supplements existing landowner incentive programs that provide technical or financial assistance to private landowners. All grants need to be matched by at least 25 percent from a non-Federal source.
States in the Midwest will receive the following funding through the Landowner Incentive Program:
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The Illinois
Department of Natural Resources will receive nearly $946,000 and match
nearly $491,000 to continue work in the Lower Sangamon River Watershed
and will expand into the Alton Bluffs area near St. Louis. Proposed
projects will include hill prairie restoration, invasive species
control, timber stand improvement and restoration of prairies, wetlands,
forests and streams.
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The Indiana Division
of Fish and Wildlife will receive $180,000 and match $60,000 to conserve
more than 100 species of concern. In past years, biologists developed
best management practices for species as diverse as the blue-spotted
salamander, Kirtland’s snake, the northern cave fish, and the spotted
darter. Now this new grant money will be used to recruit landowners
interested in implementing these practices on their property. The agency
expects to work with more than 700 landowners through the life of this
grant.
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The Iowa Department
of Natural Resources will receive $180,000 and match $60,000 to
implement monitoring protocols developed and approved through the Iowa
Wildlife Action Plan. It is important that monitoring approaches are
expanded and refined by gathering baseline data and standardizing
protocols.
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The Michigan
Department of Natural Resources will receive nearly $946,000 and match
$404,038 to provide private landowners with technical support to develop
habitat projects on private land in the southern grasslands and
wetlands, northern pine barrens and jack pine forests, and northern
conifers. Proposed projects include invasive species removal, prescribed
fire, restoring hydrology, and planting native vegetation.
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The Minnesota
Division of Fish and Wildlife will receive $108,488 and match $36,163 to
continue and expand work in the prairie, bluffland and Southeast forest
habitat areas.
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The Missouri
Department of Conservation will receive $180,000 and match $60,000 to
expand the private land conservation component of the Department’s
endangered species program.
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The Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources will receive $68,761 and match $22,921
to work with private landowners on habitats in the prairie and savannah
habitat areas as well as in the northern Lake Michigan coastal
ecological landscape.
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
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