We at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are pleased to announce that $1.149 million in federal funding has been awarded under the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act grant program to restore sustainable populations of fish and wildlife resources, and their habitats, in the Great Lakes Basin. One regional project and six research and restoration grant projects in part funded with $691,000 in Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding will provide more than $972,000 in non-federal partner match contributions.
Since 1998, the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act has provided more than $29.2 million dollars in federal funding to 182 research and restoration and regional projects. When combined with required matching funds, this equals more than $42.8 million worth of benefits to Great Lakes fish, wildlife and the habitats they depend on. More than 127 organizations have contributed more than $13.6 million in matching non-federal partner support. Funded projects include:
Regional project
Restoring fish and wildlife habitat and improving water quality in the western Lake Erie Basin - Phase III, Ducks Unlimited, $350,000.
Research and restoration grant projects
- Common terns and piping plovers: Critical habitat restoration, Minnesota Land Trust, $145,000.
- Boardman River watershed restoration and road crossing assessment project, Conservation Resource Alliance, $95,000.
- Bloomfield swamp restoration, Western Reserve Land Conservancy, $247,000.
- Determining effects of inbreeding on eastern massasauga rattlesnake vital rates and population growth, Michigan State University, $128,387.
- Dowagiac River habitat restoration, City of Niles, $41,865.
- Contributions of sturgeon passage to annual lake sturgeon recruitment in the Upper Menominee River, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, $142,264.
