Contacts
Hugh Vickery, 202-501-4633
Interior Secretary Gale Norton applauded President Bush for
signing an executive order today in support of cooperative conservation and
announced $16 million in cost-share conservation grants to private landowners
and Native American tribes. The grants will support 150 projects to conserve
threatened, endangered and at-risk species across the country.
“With today’s executive order, President Bush has
made working in voluntary partnership with states, local communities, tribes,
private landowners and others the gold standard for our conservation efforts,” Norton
said. “The grants we are announcing today meet that standard by empowering
tribes and private citizens to do what the federal government cannot do alone – conserve
habitat for imperiled species on private and tribal lands.”
Norton announced the grants through three programs begun by
President Bush – the Private Stewardship Grant program, the Tribal
Landowner Incentive Program, and the Tribal Wildlife Grant Program.
Under the Private Stewardship Grant program, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service will award $7 million in grants to support 97 projects
undertaken by private landowners and groups in 39 states. The new grants
will benefit species ranging from the bog turtle in the eastern United States
to the O’ahu ’elepaio, an endangered forest bird in Hawaii. The
recipients of the grants must contribute at least a 10 percent match in non-federal
dollars or in-kind contributions.
“This program is modeled on a successful program developed
by President Bush when he was governor of Texas,” FWS Director Steve
Williams said. “Over the past two years, we have empowered landowners
to undertake more than 200 projects that improve habitat for imperiled species
on their property. The most effective conservation projects are those conceived
and carried-out by the people who live and work on the land.”
In the Service’s Great Lake-Big Rivers region, 15 projects
in seven states received Private Stewardship grants totaling more than $718,000.
The following Private Stewardship Grants were funded today for the Great
Lakes-Big Rivers Region:
Illinois
Managing Habitat for the Threatened Eastern Prairie
Fringed Orchid in Northeastern Illinois – Lake County,
Illinois – ($25,000)
Menard County Illinois Hill Prairie - Menard
County, Illinois – ($19,800)
Indiana
Fen Restoration, Marshall County, Indiana
($13,900)
NIPSCO Dune Acres/Calumet Trail Restoration,
Porter County, Indiana ($11,082)
Iowa
Control of Invasive Honeysuckle to Protect and Improve
Habitat for Endangered Species, Iowa County, Iowa, ($10,000)
Michigan
Endangered Great Lakes Piping Plover Protection and
Monitoring in Northern Michigan, Alger County, Michigan ($16,635)
Stewardship of a Regionally Significant Conservation
Area in Michigan, Multiple Counties, Michigan, ($100,000)
Minnesota
Southeastern Minnesota Prairie and Savanna Restoration
Project: Filmore, Houston, Olmsted, and Mower Counties, Minnesota,
($70,300)
Restoring Topeka shiner habitat on the Rock river
in southwest Minnesota, Rock County, Minnesota, ($30,000)
Missouri
Missouri Prairie Habitat Revitalization: Barton,
Vernon, St. Clair, Dade and Callaway Counties, Missouri, ($69,500)
Meramec River Watershed Restoration for Rare Mussels: Franklin,
Gasconade, and Crawford Counties, Missouri, ($60,000)
Habitat enhancement and restoration for select listed
species at five Missouri sites: Reynolds, Dade, Barton, Benton,
and Greene Counties, Missouri, ($50,000)
Wisconsin
Karner Blue Butterfly and Associated Declining Species
of Savanna Barrens, Multiple Counties, Wisconsin, ($152,727)
Protecting State Threatened and Endangered Species
in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area Barrens, Iowa County, Wisconsin,
($30,000)
Kinnickinnic River Canyon Project, St. Croix
County, Wisconsin, ($60,000)
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 544 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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