Interior Secretary Gale Norton today announced more than $70 million in grants to 28 states and one territory to support conservation planning and acquisition of vital habitat for threatened and endangered fish, wildlife, and plant species.
Funded through the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund and authorized by Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act, the grants will enable States to work with private landowners, conservation groups and other agencies to initiate conservation planning efforts and to acquire and protect habitat to support the conservation of threatened and endangered species.
The cooperative endangered species fund this year provides $8.6 million through the Habitat Conservation Planning Assistance Grants Program, $49 million through the Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition Grants Program, and $13.5 million through the Recovery Land Acquisition Grants Program. The three programs were established to help reduce potential conflicts between the conservation of threatened and endangered species and land development and use.
Here in Alaska, a Recovery Land Acquisition Grant of $191,304 will allow project partners to purchase strategic private inholdings from willing sellers in the Nelson Lagoon area to protect Steller's eider habitat. Nelson Lagoon is the most important fall molting area for the world's population of Steller's eiders, and is located within the state-designated Port Moller Critical Habitat Area. There are several private inholdings in the Port Moller Critical Habitat Area that, if developed, could threaten important Steller's eider staging, molting, and wintering habitat, as well as hamper recovery of the Alaska-breeding population of these birds, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Other species benefiting from this project will include the emperor goose, Pacific brant, cackling Canada goose, marbled godwit, bristle-thighed curlew, Hudsonian godwit, and other species of ducks and shorebirds. This project is part of a larger-scale project to integrate waterfowl and wetland protection initiatives such as the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program, and the Pacific Coast Joint Venture.
The Recovery Land Acquisition Grants Program provides funds to states and territories to acquire habitat for endangered and threatened species in approved recovery plans. Acquisition of habitat to secure long term protection is often an essential element of a comprehensive recovery effort for a listed species.
The Service's Alaska Regional Director, Rowan Gould, said, "This grant is a perfect example of how we can work with partners and willing landowners to increase protection for threatened and endangered species such as Steller's eiders. By taking this path, we provide an example for future cooperative conservation efforts while providing benefits for a host of other species that share the eider's habitat."
For more information on the 2004 grant awards for these programs (Catalog of Domestic Federal Assistance Number 15.615), see the Service's Endangered Species home page at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/grants/.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 542 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands, and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices, and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
