The Department of the Interior America’s Great Outdoors Fifty–State Report identified 101 collaborative projects (two per state; one in the District of Columbia) to be completed in 2012. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is lead agency on 39 of them, described here.
Alabama—Gulf Coast Restoration. Support military area conservation.
Colorado—Rocky Mountain Greenway Project. Link trails and Rocky Mountain Flats, Rocky Mountain Arsenal and Two Ponds National Wildlife Refuges.
Connecticut—Connecticut River Blueway. Improve river access, national blueway designation, integrate with downtown Hartford.
Delaware—Delaware National Bayshore. Expand access to and conserve bayshore.
Florida—East Central Regional Rail–Trail Project. Construct 50–mile trail linking waterways and enabling public land access.
Illinois—Hackmatack Refuge. 23,000–acre refuge near Chicago to engage urban residents and protect wildlife corridors.
Indiana—Wabash River–Healthy Rivers Initiative. Acquire conservation easements and restore 94–mile stretch of floodplain.
Iowa—Southern Prairie Pothole Refuge. Add 5,000 acres to Dunbar Slough wetlands, preserve as a refuge.
Iowa—Loess Hills. Conservation easements, implement conservation plans, cultural resource management.
Kansas—Flint Hills Legacy Conservation Area. Establish easement–based conservation area with potential visitor center.
Two young crabbers show off their catch at Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge near New Orleans. A fishing pier is to be built at the refuge as part of an America’s Great Outdoors urban waters initiative.
Credit: Steve Hillebrand |
Louisiana—Urban Waters Initiative. Construct fishing pier at Big Branch Marsh Refuge.
Louisiana—Restore Lake Pontchartrain Basin. Create marshland in Bayou Bonfouca.
Maine—Penobscot River. Dam removal to restore access to spawning grounds for sea–run fish.
Maine—Keeping Maine’s Forests. Promote forest stewardship by connecting conservation agencies, timber and recreational fishing industries.
Massachusetts—Connecticut River Blueway. Improve regional access to river by establishing water trail.
Michigan—Detroit River. Waterfront park to engage underserved urban youth in conservation.
Michigan—Detroit River. Engage underserved youth through public access to waterfront.
Minnesota—Upper Minnesota River Watershed. Improve access along river and infrastructure in adjacent parks/trails.
Montana—Crown of the Continent. Land acquisition/conservation easements to preserve working land/wildlife corridor.
Nebraska—Platte River Access. Continue/expand recreation access program.
New Hampshire—Northern Forest. Expand conserved lands in forest.
New Hampshire—Silvio O. Conte Refuge. Critical land acquisitions to increase wildlife habitat.
New Jersey—Barnegat Bay. Add 1,019 acres to increase public access to waterways.
New Jersey—Barnegat Bay. Boardwalk, launch areas and other recreational improvements to aid waterfront access and link bay and Edwin B. Forsythe Refuge.
New Mexico—Price’s Dairy (Middle Rio Grande Refuge). Protect 570 acres in Albuquerque area as community gateway to outdoors and preserve migratory bird habitat.
North Carolina—East Fork Tract Mountain Bog. 2,200+–acre bog is one of the most important unprotected natural areas in Southern Appalachians.
North Dakota—Missouri River Forest Restoration Project. Engage youth in tree planting on state/private lands.
North Dakota—Dakota Grassland Conservation Area. Acquire easements on 2 million acres of native/prairie habitat.
Ohio—Northeast Ohio Wetland Project. Conserve critical migratory bird habitat along Lake Erie.
Oregon—Willamette Valley Conservation Plan. Involve landowners in conservation agreement governing fast–developing region and valuable habitat.
South Carolina—Longleaf Pine Focal Area. Create protected area to conserve rapidly vanishing natural resource.
South Dakota—Dakota Grassland Conservation Area. Acquire easements on 2 million acres of native/prairie habitat.
Tennessee—Paint Rock River Watershed. Connect protected lands in watershed into broader refuge that encompasses ecosystem.
Texas—Rio Grande Watershed. Acquire conservation easements to protect key land in watershed.
Texas—West Galveston Bay. Construct estuarine nursery habitat to mitigate damage of human impact.
Utah—Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. Experiential, conservation–oriented programming for school groups.
Vermont—Winooski River Watershed Project. Conserve critical floodplain protection areas and engage local communities on watershed management plans.
Vermont—Connecticut River Blueway. Establish new access points and designate the river as a national blueway to enhance recreation opportunities.
West Virginia—Canaan Valley Refuge. Use conservation easements to create greater connectivity among protected lands.
