Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced that private landowners and conservation entities 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 Administration's innovative cost-share Private Stewardship Grants program. Oklahoma received nearly $280,000 for three grants.
Administered by the Department's 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.
"This is the second round of grants awarded under the PSG program and judging from the successful results coming in from conservation projects funded in the first round last year, we can report that the President's idea of providing financial support to local citizen conservationists is an unqualified success," Secretary Norton said. "The most effective conservation projects are those conceived and carried-out by the people who live and work on the land.?
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. In 2003, 113 grants totaling more than $9.4 million were awarded to private individuals and groups in 43 states"COLOR: #00c1c2.
"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 Oklahoma grants are:
Selected fences in Beaver and Ellis Counties, Oklahoma and Lipscomb County, Texas will be voluntarily marked and removed to reduce collisions and mortality of lesser prairie-chickens, an ?at-risk? species in the High Plains portion of the Southwest Region. Sutton Avian Research received a grant of $53,800 to do the work.
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Three hundred acres of saltcedar and Eastern redcedar infestation along the Canadian River Floodplain in Ellis County will be controlled. The Nature Conservancy> will receive $65,50>0 to stem the non-native vegetation at their Four Canyon Preserve using prescribed fire, mechanical removal, and herbicide treatments. The Nature Conservancy proposes to quantify relative success of control methods and monitor results of management efforts. This action is expected to enhance existing and create new habitat for least terns, snowy plover, Arkansas River shiners, bell's vireos, Swainson's hawks, and a variety of other birds, reptiles and amphibians that are imperiled.
1. 1 The Nature Conservancy received $>160,648 to establish prescribed fire as a primary conservation tool to restore native vegetation on private lands and to implement habitat restoration on 56,000 acres for the benefit of a variety of grassland species, including the American burying beetle, lesser prairie-chicken, Bell's vireo, and other at-risk species.
The announcement came shortly after President Bush signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to work with states, tribes, local communities, conservation groups, private landowners and other partners in cooperative conservation projects. The executive order instructs federal departments and agencies such as the Interior Department to ensure that they carry out their statutory obligations in a ?manner that promotes cooperative conservation, with an emphasis on appropriate inclusion of local participation in federal decision making.?
"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 private citizens to do what the federal government cannot do alone ? conserve habitat for imperiled species on private and tribal lands.?
For a complete list of Private Partnership Stewardship grant awards, please visit:
