Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton announced today that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will award more than $13 million in grants to 10 states to conserve, restore and protect coastal wetlands. States awarded grants for fiscal year 2005 under the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program are Alaska, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
The grants provide funding for 16 projects and will be supplemented with nearly $13 million from state and private partners. The grants will be used to acquire, restore or enhance coastal wetlands for long-term conservation benefits to wildlife and habitat. Partners in this years projects include state and local governments, private landowners and conservation groups such as Ducks Unlimited, the Trust for Public Land and the Wildlife Forever Foundation.
In the Fish and Wildlife Services Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, four grant projects in Wisconsin and Michigan will receive a total of more than $3.7 million in grants, to be matched by more than $3 million in partner funds. Grant descriptions are at the end of this release.
" Citizen-stewards are often our most effective conservationists, and programs like the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant program empower them," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said. "People working in partnership will help us ensure that we can pass along to our children and grandchildren a country that is as healthy and whole as the one we inherited."
National Coastal Wetlands Conservation grants are awarded to states through a competitive process. The program is funded by the 1990 Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act. Funding for the program is generated from excise taxes on fishing equipment and motorboat and small engine fuels. These taxes are deposited into the Sport Fish Restoration Account of the Aquatic Resources Trust Fund.
To date, the Service has awarded nearly $152 million in grants to states and a U.S. territory under the program. When the 2005 grants projects are complete, they will have protected and/or restored almost 22,000 acres. Nearly 189,000 acres will have been protected or restored since the wetlands grant program began in 1990.
For more information about the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program contact the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203 or Division of Federal Aid, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203; or check the programs Internet home page at http://www.fws.gov/cep/cwgcover.html
This year, the program became the first Service grant program to accept proposals electronically through grants.gov">. The grants.gov"> website is a cross-agency E-Government initiative, spanning 900 federal financial assistance programs and $350 billion in annual grants.
The 2005 National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant projects for Michigan and Wisconsin are:
Michigan
Bete Grise Coastal Wetlands Acquisition. Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources will acquire 1,800 acres in Keweenaw County adjacent to the Bete Grise Bay of Lake Superior. The Nature Conservancy and Michigan’s Departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality have identified this area as being the single most important estuarine marsh remaining in the Upper Great Lakes.
Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Keweenaw Land Trust, Houghton/Keweenaw Conservation District, and the South Shore Association.
Coastal grant request: $1,000,000
Partners share: $488,443
Total cost: $1,488,443
Wisconsin
Clough Preservation and Restoration Project. Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources will acquire 350 acres of wetlands and associated upland habitat at the westernmost tip of the Great Lakes. Of these 350 acres, 133 acres of impaired wetlands will be restored. Clough is in the St. Louis River estuary, and is surrounded by the metropolitan areas of Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota. The State of Minnesota will work with Wisconsin to implement the proposal.
Partners: Duluth Audubon Society, Friends of Superior Municipal Forest, Lake Superior Chapter of Muskies Incorporated, McCabe Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, Save Lake Superior Association, and Twin Ports Bass Masters (Minnesota B.A.S.S. Federation), and Western Skyline Preservation Alliance.
Coastal grant request: $1,000,000
State share: $1,000,000
Partners share: $650
Total cost: $1,000,650
North Bay—Mud Lake Ridges Land Acquisition. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will acquire or purchase conservation easements on 655 acres surrounding the North Bay of Lake Michigan in Door County. The project will protect important feeding, spawning and nursery grounds for a number of fish, including northern pike, smallmouth bass and whitefish.
Partners: The Nature Conservancy and the Ridges Sanctuary.
Coastal grant request: $1,000,000
State share: $1,000,000
Partners share: $220,000
Total cost: $2,220,000
Washington and Detroit Acquisition. Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources will acquire or purchase conservation easements on about 250 acres, including 11,200 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline in Door County. These islands are at the tip of the Door Peninsula, and provide spring and fall migration stopover habitat for songbirds and birds of prey.
Partners: Door County Land Trust and the Washington Art and Nature Center.
Coastal grant request: $788,833
State share: $960,750
Partners share: $65,000
Total cost: $1,814,583
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 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 63 Fish and Wildlife Management 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 Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
