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February 25, 2004 Contact:
The grants, part of the administration’s Landowner Incentive Program started last year, will support innovative partnerships in 40 states and the Virgin Islands. State fish and wildlife agencies, landowners or non-profit groups must put up at least 25 percent of the cost of projects. With these grants, states will be able to provide financial and technical assistance to interested landowners. “I was pleased to report to the President that thanks to the unprecedented commitment to cooperative conservation in his budget, the department has been able to empower states, tribes, local communities, private landowners, and others to undertake innovative conservation projects to restore our land and recover its wildlife,” Norton said. The Landowner Incentive Program supports the administration’s overall Cooperative Conservation Initiative, which includes a number of conservation grant programs to assist states, tribes, conservation organizations, private landowners and others in conservation projects and programs. The program is based on the highly successful Texas Landowner Incentive Program developed by then-Governor Bush in 1997 to involve landowners in voluntary efforts to benefit rare species in several Texas counties. The goal of this ongoing state program is to help avoid the listing of at-risk species and assist in the recovery of listed species. Landowners benefit through the continued use of their lands. Overall, the President’s 2005 budget includes $507.3 million for the Interior Department’s cooperative conservation programs, more than a 43 percent increase for these programs since 2001. Within this total, the President’s budget includes $129.5 million – a 25 percent increase -- for the Cooperative Conservation Initiative. During 2003, CCI’s first year, the initiative funded 256 projects in more than 40 states and Puerto Rico. “From restoring streams and riparian areas to bringing back natural prairies, we are empowering landowners to undertake conservation projects that they otherwise could not afford while restoring habitat on private lands that are vital to threatened, endangered and other imperiled species,” Norton said. “These funds help Interior extend a hand to work with the nation's many citizen stewards, who often are the nation's most effective conservationists.” LIP projects involve a variety
of conservation activities and management actions. They include removing
exotic plants, adapting grazing practices to enhance vital riparian
habitat, providing instream or streambank structural improvements to
benefit aquatic species, closing roads to protect habitat, and encouraging
conservation easements. Examples of the types of activities supported by Landowner Incentive Program grants include the following:
A state-by-state list for the Landowner Incentive Program grants follows. For more information on the Landowner Incentive Program, please contact: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Federal Aid, 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Room 140, Arlington, VA 22203; phone (703) 358-2156 or visit the FWS Grants-at-a-Glance Web site: www.grants.fws.gov/. U.S. FISH
AND WILDLIFE SERVICE
For more information about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, visit our home page at http://southeast.fws.gov/ or http://www.fws.gov/. NOTE: You can view our releases or subscribe to receive them -- via e-mail -- at the Service's Southeast Regional home page at http://southeast.fws.gov. Our national home page is at: http://news.fws.gov/newsreleases/. Atlanta, GA 30345 |
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