Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced that private landowners and groups in 39 states are receiving more than $7 million to undertake conservation projects on their land for endangered, threatened and other at-risk species thanks to the Administrations innovative cost-share Private Stewardship Grants program. Administered by the Departments U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, each of the 97 grants awarded today require at least a 10 percent match in non-federal dollars or in-kind contributions. The new grants will benefit species ranging from the bog turtle in the eastern United States to the Oahu elepaio, an endangered forest bird in Hawaii.
"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 private citizens to do what the federal government cannot do alone ? conserve habitat for imperiled species on private lands.
The Private Stewardship Grants Program provides federal grants on a competitive basis to individuals and groups engaged in voluntary conservation efforts on private lands that benefit federally listed endangered or threatened species, candidate species or other at-risk species. Under this program, private landowners as well as groups working with private landowners are able to submit proposals directly to the Service for funding to support these efforts. President Bush has requested funding of $10 million for this program in 2005"COLOR: #33cccc. In 2003, 113 grants totaling more than $9.4 million were awarded to private individuals and groups in 43 states"COLOR: #33cccc.
"Private Stewardship grants encourage private landowners in their voluntary efforts to implement tailor made conservation strategies for listed, proposed, candidate, or other at-risk species found on their land," said Service Director Steve Williams.
The following are some examples by state of the Private Stewardship Grants funded today: http//endangered.fws.gov/grants/private_stewardship.html. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number for this grant program is 15-632.
Alaska
1. 1 Preventing and Monitoring Avian Collisions with Towers and Wires - (application by Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Association) - Alaska - ($62,424) - To install bird deterrent devices and predator-proof fences at wind turbine sites in three remote communities in Southwest Alaska. The goal of the project is to reduce mortality of a variety of Endangered Species Act listed (Stellers and spectacled eiders) and at-risk (emperor goose, marbled godwit) birds. The project will include an experimental component to examine pre-and post- installation mortality levels, and a continuing "citizen science" monitoring effort.
California
Habitat Protection Along the Eastern Edge of Furnace Creek Wash Adjacent to Death Valley National Park - (application by Bat Conservation International) - Inyo County - ($20,000) - Bat Conservation International will gate three abandoned mines to preserve habitats for 16 species of bats, including Townsends big eared bats, in the Death Valley area.
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>Hawaii>
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Keauhou Fencing and Feral Animal Control - (application by Hawaiian Silversword Foundation) - Hawaii County - ($>114,125) - >To build a 3-mile fence to protect 15,000 acres of forest and former ranch lands from ingress by alien animals (feral pigs, mouflon sheep, and goats) and control alien animals within the fenced unit. The project area contains diverse native forest and provides habitat for three endangered forest bird species, the endangered Hawaiian hawk, the endangered Hawaiian hoary bat, and nine endangered plant species. The long-term objectives are to protect and manage a large contiguous area of the landscape to enhance the long-term survival and integrity of native plant and animal communities and the natural processes on which they depend, promoting recovery of endangered species.
Louisiana
1. 1 Restoration and Enhancement of Habitat in South Louisiana to Benefit the Louisiana Black Bear and Related Species - (application by Black Bear Conservation Committee) - Iberia and Point Coupee Counties - ($65,802) - To work with private landowners to improve habitat for the threatened Louisiana black bear, particularly in key corridor areas with or near high bear density areas in the Atchafalaya River Basin and the coastal zone of Louisiana. The focus will be on salt dome hardwood forest, coastal live oak-hackberry forest, and bottomland hardwood forest restoration. This project will also result in direct benefits to other species of plants and wildlife, including the Swallow-tailed kite and Swainsons warbler. It will result in invasive species invasive species
An invasive species is any plant or animal that has spread or been introduced into a new area where they are, or could, cause harm to the environment, economy, or human, animal, or plant health. Their unwelcome presence can destroy ecosystems and cost millions of dollars.
Learn more about invasive species removal on 500 acres, reforesting of 300 acres, and removal of wild hogs. Importantly, this project also can be expected to help link existing Louisiana black bear subpopulations in Pointe Coupee and Tensas.
Missouri
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1. 1 Missouri Prairie Habitat Revitalization - (application by Missouri Prairie Foundation) - Barton, Vernon, St. Clair, Dade and Callaway Counties - ($69,500) - To enhance and restore habitat on Golden Prairie, a National Natural Landmark National Natural Landmark
The National Natural Landmarks Program preserves sites illustrating the geological and ecological character of the United States. The program aims to enhance the scientific and educational value of the preserved sites, strengthen public appreciation of natural history and foster a greater concern for the conservation of the nation’s natural heritage. The program was established in 1962 by administrative action under the authority of the Historic Sites Act of 1935. The first National Natural Landmarks were designated in 1963. Today, there are more than 600 National Natural Landmarks in 48 states, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Learn more about National Natural Landmark . The Missouri Prairie Foundation will remove invasive species on newly acquired property and will implement a patch-burn grazing regime to restore ecological function of the rolling prairie. More than 300 native plant species have been identified on Golden Prairie, as well as the greater prairie chicken, northern harrier, and loggerhead shrike.
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Nebraska
1. 1 Platte Valley Native Grassland Restoration and Enhancement Project - (application by Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust, Inc.) - Buffalo and Hall Counties - ($97,906) - To improve habitat for species at risk along a 60-mile reach of the Platte River, including adjacent native grasslands and associated wetlands in central Nebraska. Management actions include removing woodlots, shrub thickets, and scattered trees from grasslands, and creating backwater sloughs and wetlands to benefit many species including whooping cranes, least terns, piping plovers, and bald eagles. The sites will be monitored using satellite imagery and maintained for a minimum of 10 years.
1. 1 New Mexico
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1. 1 Alamosa Creek Riparian Restoration - (application by Monticello Community Ditch Association) - Socorro County - ($18,11>0) To restore 40 acres of riparian riparian
Definition of riparian habitat or riparian areas.
Learn more about riparian habitat of Alamosa Creek by removal of non-native invasive plants (saltcedar) to protect habitat for the endangered Alamosa springsnail, ovate vertigo (snail), and threatened Chiricahua leopard frog. Alamosa Creek warm springs support the only known population of Alamosa springnail in the world.
Virginia
1. 1 Upper Clinch River restoration project - (application by Tazwell Soil and Water Conservation District) - Tazewell County - ($50,000) - To improve habitat for 48 imperiled and vulnerable fish and mussel species, including the last reproducing population of the tan riffleshell mussel in the world, by addressing agricultural operations without best management practices. Techniques used may include: livestock exclusion from water bodies; grazing land management; and establishing riparian buffer zones.
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1. 1 Wisconsin
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1. 1 Karner Blue Butterfly and Associated Declining Species of Savanna Barrens - (application by Sand County Foundation) - Multiple Counties - ($152,727) - Working in partnership with nearly 30 landowners, 1,400 acres of habitat will be enhanced and restored through invasive species control, prescribed fire, tree canopy reductions, and native prairie seeding. The private lands identified are in areas where recovery and conservation of the species are likely to be achieved. The areas have been identified in the recovery units in the Karner blue butterfly Recovery Plan and as Significant Population Areas and Areas of Conservation Emphasis in the Statewide Habitat Conservation Plan.
1. 1 Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida
1. 1 Stitching Together the Fragments: Restoring the Imperiled Longleaf Ecosystem - (application by Auburn University) - ($200,000) - The Longleaf Alliance proposes to undertake planting of longleaf pine as well as rehabilitation (e.g., fire and herbicides) of degraded longleaf pine sites across a portion of its former range, emphasizing the potential to create linkages and augment existing fragments to enhance this critically imperiled ecosystem. The project will benefit over 21 species ranked G1, G2 or G3 by Nature Serve, including the red-cockaded woodpecker, eastern Indigo snake, Flatwoods salamander, Red Hills salamander, and Chaffseed. Twenty-five landowners in Georgia and Alabama are currently on the waiting list for longleaf restoration assistance. It is estimated that 800 acres would be planted to longleaf pine and 4000 acres of degraded longleaf pine would be improved.
1. 1 Colorado and South Dakota
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1. 1 Private Lands Habitat Enhancement for Grassland Species at Risk - (application by Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory) - Bent, Lincoln, Weld, Las Animas and Pueblo Counties, Colorado and Custer County, South Dakota - ($114,675) - To restore shortgrass prairie rangelands to benefit grassland and riparian species at risk, principally declining grassland birds. The six individual projects vary in the type of management proposed and include reseeding cropland to native prairie, invasive species removal, and altering livestock grazing management.
1. 1 Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania
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1. 1 Bog turtle restoration on private lands in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York -(application by Environmental Defense, Inc.) - Lancaster County (PA), Carroll and Cecil Counties (MD), Sullivan, Orange, and Dutchess Counties (NY) - ($55,522) - This project is designed to create a network of local implementers to work with a diverse partnership of organizations in three states to recover habitat for the bog turtle and other species that inhabit early successional shallow freshwater wetlands. The grant will fund habitat enhancement and restoration work on lands known or suspected to be occupied by the turtle, that are important for its conservation, and that are rapidly filling in with woody and invasive plants.
Texas and Oklahoma
Voluntary Removal and Marking of Selected Fences to Reduce Collisions by Lesser Prairie-Chickens - (application by George Miksch Sutton Avian Research) - Beaver and Ellis Counties, Oklahoma, and Lipscomb County, Texas - ($53,800) - To remove and mark selected fences to reduce collisions and mortality of lesser prairie-chickens, an "at-risk" species in the High Plains portion of the Southwest Region.
The complete list of private stewardship grants follows:
Alabama
1. 1 Paint Rock River Habitat Enhancement Project - (application by The Nature Conservancy) - Jackson County, Alabama - ($200,000) - To restore riparian habitat in the upper Paint Rock River Watershed. Projects include application of bioengineering methods, planting, root wads, riparian fencing, provision of alternative water sources for livestock, and demonstrating effective best management practices. The benefits of this project include reduced sedimentation and a reduction in threats associated with incompatible agricultural and livestock practices in this area of the watershed. Specific restoration techniques will involve: fencing, stream bank restoration, provision of alternative watering sources, and reforestation in the riparian zone. The Paint Rock River and its major tributaries (Estill Fork, Hurricane Creek, and Larkin Fork) support one of the most diverse aquatic assemblages in North America, including more than 100 species of fish (5 globally rare or imperiled) and approximately 45 mussel species (9 globally rare or imperiled -- 2 currently restricted to the Paint Rock).
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1. 1 See Also Multi-State Proposals
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Alaska
1. 1 Preventing and Monitoring Avian Collisions with Towers and Wires - (application by Aleutian/Pribilof Islands Association) - Alaska - ($62,424) - To install bird deterrent devices and predator-proof fences at wind turbine sites in three remote communities in Southwest Alaska. The goal of the project is to reduce mortality of a variety of Endangered Species Act listed (Stellers and spectacled eiders) and at-risk (emperor goose, marbled godwit) avian species. The project will include an experimental component to examine pre-and post- installation mortality levels, and a continuing "citizen science" monitoring effort.
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1. 1 Afognak Motorized Access Denial Phase II - (application by Wildlife Forever) - Alaska - ($67,500) - Continuing an effort initiated under a fiscal year 2003 Private Stewardship grant, this project will use physical barriers and forest road reclamation techniques to deny all-terrain vehicle access to approximately 10 miles of forest roads. The projects goal is to provide approximately 1,000 acres of security habitat for brown bears, thus reducing human-caused mortality. The project will also reduce sedimentation into anadromous fish streams. These road reclamation activities are additive to post-harvest actions required under Alaska-s forest practices act.
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1. 1 Chester Creek Rehabilitation Project - (application by Cook Inlet Housing Authority; Venture Development Group, LLC) - Alaska - ($96,124) - To recreate approximately 2000 feet of channel of the South Fork of Chester Creek, a channelized urban stream in Anchorage. The project will recreate pools and meanders and use bioengineering techniques to create a vegetated riparian zone. The project will benefit Coho salmon, which historically reared on this stream reach and are greatly reduced throughout the highly-degraded watershed, and will complement several other on-going or anticipated riparian and 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 restoration projects along the creek.
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1. 1 Stabilization of Degraded Wetlands Trails Project - (application by Cook Inlet Tribal Council) - Alaska - ($75,000) - To construct approximately 800 feet of porous pavement all-terrain vehicle trail across highly degraded wetlands providing rearing habitat for 2 species of Pacific salmon and also benefiting at least 5 species of regionally-rare, wetland-dependant plants.
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Arkansas
1. 1 Lands Restoration to Benefit Endangered Indiana Bats and Gray Bats in Arkansas - (application by The Nature Conservancy) - ton and Benton Counties Arkansas - ($24,500) - To enhance habitat for the largest Indiana bat hibernaculum cave remaining in Arkansas (Sherfield Cave) by adding maternity opportunities and increasing the availability of suitable brood trees close to the cave on this 1200-acre property. The project will also help protect this site through fencing, gating roads, educational signage, and restricting access during certain seasons. The project also proposes to help reduce human disturbance of a gray bat colony by protecting the bat flyway from Logan Cave exurgence to Osage Creek by fencing, gating roads, and installing educational signage. This project will benefit six species including gray and Indiana bats, Benton cave crayfish, Ozark cavefish, Ozark cave amphipod, and the cave isopod.
California
Habitat Protection Along the Eastern Edge of Furnace Creek Wash Adjacent to Death Valley National Park - (application by Bat Conservation International) - Inyo County, California - ($20,000) - Bat Conservation International will gate three abandoned mines to preserve habitats for 16 species of bats, including Townsends big eared bats, in the Death Valley area.
Dooley Creek Restoration Project - (application by Bioengineering Institute) - >Mendocino County, California - ($38,351) - To restore riparian and instream habitat and stabilize banksalong a 2,734-foot stretch of Dooley Creek. Salmonid habitat will be enhanced by structures that increase native riparian vegetative cover and pool habitat and reduce sediment from eroding banks.
Colorado
1. 1 Lasater Ranch Black-tailed Prairie Dog Project - (application by ROE Ecological Services, LLC) - Elbert County, Colorado - ($17,570) - >To establish a viable black-tailed prairie dog colony on native prairie within the historic range of the species, which in turn will provide nesting habitat for several avian species at risk that thrive on prairie dog colonies.
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Connecticut
1. 1 Wetland restoration at Beeslick Pond and Benton Hill Fen preserves - (application by The Nature Conservancy of Connecticut) - Litchfield County, Connecticut - ($66,343) - To control invasive species at two separate wetlands in Connecticut. Control efforts will include herbicide applications to invasive plants and, at Benton Hill Fen only, mechanical control through mowing of adjacent early successional habitat. This project will help maintain Connecticut's small bog turtle population.
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1. 1 Florida
Introduction of the Federally-Listed Endangered Shrub Florida Ziziphus at Tiger Creek Preserve - (application by The Nature Conservancy) - Polk County, Florida - ($40,870) - Florida ziziphus is the most imperiled plant on the Lake Wales Ridge and is one of the rarest plants in Florida. Five of the six known remaining populations are incapable of producing viable fruit. This project implements the main goal of the Fish and Wildlife Services Recovery Plan for Florida ziziphus which is to establish sexually reproductive populations on protected sites containing appropriate habitat. The Nature Conservancy, working in partnership with others, will establish a reproductively viable population of Florida ziziphus at Tiger Creek Preserve. The project entails site preparation (prescribed burning and installation of irrigation system), propagation, genetic analysis of propagules, transplanting, and maintaining the introduced propagules.
1. 1 Management of a Nascent Population of the Endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker and its Habitat in Northern Florida - (application by Turner Endangered Species Fund) - Jefferson County, Florida - ($28,890) - To expand the size of the nascent population of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker at the Avalon Plantation in northern Florida using a combination of on-the-ground management activities and long-term habitat management agreements. Twelve breeding groups currently reside on the Plantation. The population goal is for 25 to 30 active groups. The population will be increased through targeted intra-population translocation and augmentation, construction of recruitment clusters in key areas, and identification and protection of active cavity trees. A Safe Harbor Agreement is being developed for the property. The target species for this project is the federally endangered Red cockaded woodpecker, but other species are expected to benefit including Shermans fox squirrel, gopher tortoise, and Florida pine snake.
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Restoration of Scrub and Cutthroat Grass Communities on the Lake Wales Ridge - (application by Archbold Biological Station) - Highlands County, Florida - ($36,358) - To conserve and manage 3,648 acres on the south end of Lake Wales Ridge to meet many of the recovery actions for the 13 federally threatened and endangered species on the site that are identified in the South Florida Multi-Species Recovery Plan. The work involves preparation of a 10-year burn plan for this newly acquired property, designation of burn units and fire return intervals, preparation of fire breaks around units and fire lanes around the perimeter of the property, construction and repair of fencing to exclude unapproved public access onto lands with rare plants, and implementation of prescribed burns. This project site is located in globally imperiled Florida scrub habitat, mesic flatwoods, cutthroat seeps and bayhead.
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1. 1 Restoration of Privately-Owned Pine Rocklands: Recovering Critical Habitat for six Fish and Wildlife Service Listed Plant Taxa - (application by The Institute for Regional Conservation) - Dade County, Florida - ($115,131) - Pine rocklands are globally imperiled and the fragments that remain represent less than 2% of the original pine rockland. They only occur in South Florida and a few islands in the Bahamas. The last remaining privately owned pine rocklands are in a "state of alarming decline in habitat quality" (Proposal). The Institute for Regional Conservation will develop and initiate active restoration of privately-owned pine rocklands, by working with individual landowners, and hire professional crews to undertake restoration on private properties. This project will result in restoration of 20 sites (approximately 30 to 50 acres) representing the best remaining critical habitat for endangered pine rockland plants. Restoration will include exotic pest plant removal, control of native hardwoods, prescribed burning, debris cleanup, rare plant re-introductions, and re-establishment of a pine canopy.
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1. 1 See Also Multi-State Proposals
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1. 1 Georgia
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Hawaii
Auwahi Dryland Forest Restoration - (application by Ulupalakua Ranch) - Maui County, Hawaii - ($>26,000) - To assist the continued community-based restoration of especially diverse tracts of dryland forest at Auwahi, Ulupalakua Ranch, Maui by embarking on an 8-hectare exclosure. This exclosure will protect five endangered plant species, Xanthoxylum hawaiiense, Melicope knudsenii, Melicope adscendens, Alectryon macrococcus var. auwahiensis, and Santalum freycinetianum var. lanaiense. Funds will be used toward collecting, germinating, and propagating the endangered plants; controlling non-native invasive plants; and irrigating to ensure outplanting success.
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Keauhou Fencing and Feral Animal Control - (application by Hawaiian Silversword Foundation) - Hawaii County, Hawaii - ($>114,125) - >To build a 3-mile fence to protect 15,000 acres of forest and former ranch lands from ingress by alien animals (feral pigs, mouflon sheep, and goats) and control alien animals within the fenced unit. The project area contains diverse native forest and provides habitat for three endangered forest bird species, the endangered Hawaiian hawk, the endangered Hawaiian hoary bat, and nine endangered plant species. The long-term objectives are to protect and manage a large contiguous area of the landscape to enhance the long-term survival and integrity of native plant and animal communities and the natural processes on which they depend, promoting recovery of endangered species.
WiliWili Dryland Forest Restoration at Pu-U-O-Kali Lava Flows, Western Haleakala - (application by Ulupalakua Ranch) - Maui County, Hawaii - ($56,000) -To completely eliminate all remaining ungulates within the existing 236-acre parcel, propagate and outplant 6 endangered native plant species, and control selective invasive species in Pu-u-o-kali WiliWili dryland forest.
Feral Ungulate Perimeter Fence for Limahuli Upper Valley Preserve - (application by National Tropical Botanical Garden) - >Kauai County>, Hawaii - ($336,000) - >To construct 4.5 miles of feral ungulate-proof fence along the perimeter boundary of 400 acres of Limahuli Upper Valley. Any pigs inside the fence will be removed. This area is a biologically rich native Hawaiian lowland and montane wet forest that is habitat for wild populations of 10 federally listed species. Considerable restoration efforts have already occurred in Upper Limahuli and this fence project will secure the area from future damage from feral pigs and goats.
Habitat Enhancement for Koloa and Nene - (application by Ducks Unlimited) - Hawaii County, Hawaii - ($>49,800) - >To restore and increase the number of wetland and associated upland habitats available to breeding populations of Koloa and Nene on the of Hawaii. The work will be carried out on 2 parcels (23 acres and 74 acres), 2.6 miles south of Honokaa Town in the Ahualoa District of the of Hawaii at Cloud Forest Coffee organic farm.
North Pualii Gulch Ungulate Exclosure - (application by The Nature Conservancy) - Hawaii County, Hawaii - ($>65,750) -> To construct a 9.8-acre pig and goat fence exclosure in North Pualii Gulch to protect an intact stand of dry-mesic native forest containing 5 listed endangered species including plants and the elepaio, 5 species of concern, and 1 candidate species. Install a 500 gallon tank, 10 x 16 foot catchment surface, and irrigation system, to provide water for weed control and watering of outplants. Reintroduce 12 listed endangered plant species within the fenced exclosure.
Conservation and Restoration of Rare and Endangered Flora and Fauna Along Honolii Stream, South Hilo, of Hawaii - (application by Waialae Falls LLC) - >Hawaii County, Hawaii - ($>48,818) - To restore a 1/3-mile long section of land along the Honolii Stream by removing pigs and invasive tree species and planting State and federally listed plant species that once occurred in the area, restoring habitat for the plants as well as two endangered birds, the Io and Koloa. Fencing will help protect the restoration site from further ingress of pigs.
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Dryland Forest Restoration at Ka-upulehu - (application by Hawaii Forest Industry Association) - Hawaii County, Hawaii - ($>108,515) - >To enhance 70 acres of the existing dryland forest remnant at Ka?upulehu by continuing on-the-ground conservation actions during a 1-year period: reintroducing the nine target endangered plant species, managing nonnative competitors, ensuring ample supply of water for irrigation, reducing threats from alien mammals, reducing threats from fire, and e
