Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it is awarding nearly $8 million to help federally recognized Indian Tribes conserve fish and wildlife on their lands. The Service is awarding the grants under two programs: the Tribal Landowner Incentive Program and Tribal Wildlife Grants Program. The Tribal Landowner Incentive Program supports federally recognized Indian tribes to protect, restore, and manage habitat for species at risk, including federally listed endangered or threatened species, as well as proposed or candidate species on tribal lands. The Service is providing over $2 million to help fund 15 Tribal Landowner Incentive projects.
About $6 million will help fund 28 projects under the Tribal Wildlife Grants program. These grants are awarded to federally-recognized Indian tribes to benefit fish, wildlife and their habitat, including species that are not hunted or fished.
Since 2003, the Service has put more than $38 million to work for tribal conservation efforts through the two grant programs.
Indian tribes in the Lower 48 states have a controlling interest in more than 52 million acres of tribal trust lands, and an additional 40 million acres are held by Alaska Native corporations. Much of this land is relatively undisturbed, providing a significant amount of rare and important fish and wildlife habitat.
"The Services Tribal Landowner Incentive and Wildlife Grant programs in Alaska provide us with important opportunities to help Alaska tribes carry out programs and activities that further their conservation efforts." said Fish and Wildlife Service Alaska Regional Director Tom Melius.
Here in Alaska, the Native Village of Kiana received a Tribal Landowner Incentive Grant of $149,800 to support the Villages "Kiana Elders Camp". The purpose of this camp is to educate youths in Inupiat culture and subsistence traditions, and to expose them to western science and resource management. Selawik National Wildlife Refuge will be involved with this project.
Alaska Native organizations will receive three Tribal Wildlife Grants:
- "Seldovia River Salmon Restoration and Habitat Access" is the title of the Seldovia Village Tribe's project. The $249,437 grant will be used to restore fish (salmon) passage on Seldovia River.
For a complete list of awards, visit the Services home page at /www.fws.gov.
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 540 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.
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For more information about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, ; visit our home page at http://www.fws.gov"> ;
