The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced Tribal Wildlife Grants awards to Native American and Alaska Native tribes funding a wide range of conservation projects across the country.
“The mindful stewardship of fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats is a value that tribal nations share with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” said Service Director Dan Ashe. “Tribal Wildlife Grants create opportunities for us to work together in a variety of ways, including species restoration, fish passage fish passage
Fish passage is the ability of fish or other aquatic species to move freely throughout their life to find food, reproduce, and complete their natural migration cycles. Millions of barriers to fish passage across the country are fragmenting habitat and leading to species declines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fish Passage Program is working to reconnect watersheds to benefit both wildlife and people.
Learn more about fish passage , protection of migratory birds, and coping with long-term effects of a changing climate.”
This year, three Alaska Native tribes will receive a total of $433,026 in grant money. Since 2003, more than $6 million has gone to Alaska Native tribes through the Tribal Wildlife Grants Program, funding 36 projects involving habitat restoration, population surveys and monitoring, scientific research, and conservation planning. These grants provide technical and financial assistance for development and implementation of projects that benefit fish and wildlife resources and their habitats, including nongame species.
The Agdaagux Tribe of King Cove will receive $199,731 for local monitoring of ecologically important wildlife species. The monitoring will take place in three Aleutian Island communities and includes data collection on northern sea otters, Steller’s eiders, Pacific black brant, and emperor geese.
For the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, $199,943 will allow the community to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of current rat stations, defense strategies and control techniques of the rat prevention program on St. Paul Island. This includes updating and improving current rat data collection and sharing methods.
The Native Village of Wales will use the grant of $33,352 to conduct systematic beach surveys along the northern Seward Peninsula to perform coastal marine mammal surveys and monitoring of seals and walruses found washed up along the coast. Surveys will also include documenting any debris associated with the Japanese tsunami of March 2011 and reporting findings to the NOAA’s Marine Debris Program.
The grants have enabled tribes to develop increased management capacity, improve and enhance relationships with partners (including state agencies), address cultural and environmental priorities, and heighten tribal students’ interest in fisheries, wildlife and related fields of study. Some grants have been awarded to support recovery efforts for threatened and endangered species.
The grants are provided exclusively to federally recognized Indian tribal governments and are made possible under the Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2002 through the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants program. Proposals for the 2014 grant cycle are due September 3, 2013.
For more information about the Tribal Wildlife Grant Program, visit http://www.fws.gov/nativeamerican/grants.html
