Interior Secretary Gale Norton today announced grants totaling more than $5.7 million to private landowners and groups in 38 states and one territory to undertake conservation projects on their land for endangered, threatened and other at-risk species.
Projects in seven Midwestern states will share in more than $431,000 in grant funds.
Administered by the Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, each of the grants awarded today require at least a 10 percent match in non-federal dollars or in-kind contributions.
Now in its third year, 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 submit proposals directly to the Service for funding to support these efforts.
The Administration has requested funding of $10 million for this program in 2006; last year, 97 grants totaling more than $7 million were awarded to private individuals and groups in 39 states. In the first two years of the program, 210 grants totaling more than $16 million were awarded to private landowners across the country.
The Administration has requested funding of $10 million for this program in 2006; last year, 97 grants totaling more than $7 million were awarded to private individuals and groups in 39 states. In the first two years of the program, 210 grants totaling more than $16 million were awarded to private landowners across the country.
“Private Stewardship grants continue to provide support to private landowners who have made voluntary commitments to conserve species on their land,” said Acting Service Director Matt Hogan.
Following the recent rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas, Secretary Norton set aside $800,000 from the fiscal year 2005 Private Stewardship Grants Program to fund a separate “call for proposals” for projects specifically designed to benefit that species’ conservation. The Service will soon announce the availability of this grant money through www.Grants.gov">.
Private Stewardship grants awarded in the Midwest are:
Illinois
Hennepin and Hopper Lakes Restoration – (application by The Wetlands Initiative) – Putnam County – ($40,500) – The hydrology of Hopper Lake was recently restored to historic conditions. The Wetlands Initiative will control invasive plant species to protect habitat for at-risk plant species such as fen panicled sedge, queen of the prairie and savanna blazing star. Approximately 35 acres of wetland will be treated to control cattail and reed-canary grass.
Managing Habitat for the Threatened Eastern Prairie Fringed Orchid in Northeastern Illinois – (application by Fox Valley Land Foundation) – Lake, Kane, Grundy, Cook, Ogle and Kankakee counties – ($79,500) – Working with nine private landowners, the Fox Valley Land Foundation, in cooperation with Abbott Laboratories, Kane County Forest Preserve District, Hybernia Homeowners Association and The Nature Conservancy, will manage habitat to support stable or increasing populations of the eastern prairie fringed orchid on private lands in northern Illinois. Stewards will monitor the status of orchid populations, and increase the size and number of populations of other state listed native species and rare community types through management of these private sites.
Indiana
Black Oak Savanna and Prairie Pocket Marsh Restoration– (application by Big Eastern, Inc.) – Starke County – ($18,260) – The grantee will use chemical applications to control exotic and 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 in this wetland area. Approximately 90 acres of oak savanna will be burned to control brushy understory to benefit daisy-leaf grape fern, Blandings turtle and eastern massasauga rattlesnake.
Iowa
Habitat Restoration in the Hills - Phase II – (application by Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development Area) – Plymouth, Woodbury, Monona, Harrison, Paottawattamie, Mills and Freemont counties – ($64,904) –The grantee will use awarded funds to complement the Loess Hills Stewardship Work Plan in southwest Iowa. The Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development Area, in coordination with The Nature Conservancy, The Loess Hills Alliance, Pheasants Forever and private landowners, will restore and improve native prairie habitats, improve grazing lands, restore oak savannas, and provide best management practice services and skills to landowners. The stewardship projects will benefit grassland species such as Great Plains skink, prairie rattlesnake, Arogos skipper, Ottoe skipper and regal fritillary butterfly.
Michigan
Cotton Lake Fen and Prairie Restoration – (application by a private individual) – Calhoun County, Michigan – ($25,601) – The private landowner will restore 3.4 acres of prairie fen and 18 acres of upland prairie to historic vegetative conditions, restoring habitat for the Mitchells satyr butterfly.
Minnesota
Imperiled Species Conservation on Private Land in Western Minnesota – (application by Friends of the Morris Wetland Management District) – Wilkin, Ottertail, Grant, Pope, Kandiyohi, Big Stone, Yellow Medicine and Lac Qui Parle counties – ($58,297) – Friends of the Morris Wetland Management District will work with more than ten private landowners to remove woody cover in order to enhance and restore native prairie habitats to benefit greater prairie chicken, marbled godwit, short-eared owl, Henslows sparrow, Dakota skipper and western prairie fringed orchid. Approximately 2,500 acres have been identified for clearing.
Sand Coulee Prairie Restoration – (application by Friends of the Mississippi River) – Dakota County – ($59,185) – Friends of the Mississippi, cooperating with eight private landowners, will improve and maintain approximately 80 acres of native dry prairie, barrens subtype through stewardship activities including reduction and control of exotic and invasive plant species to benefit James polansia, sea-beach needle grass, clustered broomrap, Ottoe skipper and regal fritillary.
Rare species and rich fen habitat restoration – (application by a private individual) – Anoka County – ($44,755) – Approximately 23 acres of high quality wetland habitat will be restored and enhanced with Private Stewardship funding. Glossy buckthorn, reed canary grass and giant reed will be removed; soil surfaces scraped to remove reed canary genotypes and invasive seed bank; collect native species seeds on-site and disperse throughout the fen; and prescribed burning. Species that will benefit from the restoration include twisted yellow-eyed grass, cross-leaved milkwort, turbercled rein orchid and lance-leaved violet.
Missouri
Missouri Grassland Habitat Management – (application by Missouri Prairie Foundation) – Vernon, St. Clair and Dade counties, Missouri – ($100,000) – The Missouri Prairie Foundation will use a combination of prescribed fire, grazing, woody species removal, exotic species eradication, and native species establishment to enhance habitat for Meads milkweed, geocarpon, ground plum, prairie grass pink orchid, and greater prairie chicken on approximately 1,400 acres of prairie.
Wisconsin
Southern Wisconsin Prairie Recovery Project – (application by The Prairie Enthusiasts) – Iowa , Rock, Crawford, Sauk and Dane counties – ($124,311) – The Prairie Enthusiasts will work with twenty private landowners, including The Nature Conservancy and Madison Audubon Society, to accomplish prairie recovery and enhancement activities to benefit prairie bush clover, eastern prairie-fringed orchid, and 16 other imperiled species. The project entails controlling and/or eliminating invasive native and non-native tree and shrub cover.
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.
