The Interior Departments U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that almost $9 million in grants will go to sixty Native American conservation projects in eighteen states.
In the Southwest, tribes in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma received grants.
In Arizona, the Hualapai Nation received $109,229 to rear endangered fish while the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians will receive $199,988 for their wildlife management program.
New Mexico's successful tribes include Santa Ana Pueblo who received $119,990 for enhancing riparian riparian
Definition of riparian habitat or riparian areas.
Learn more about riparian areas and monitoring rare birds and $199,996 for restoring pronghorn antelope. Mescalero Apache received $200,000 for fisheries management training for nine Southwestern Tribes. Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo received $199,954 for wetland restoration. Pueblo of Sandia received $182,655 for restoring wild turkeys. Pueblo of Tesuque received $199,229 for habitat management. Santa Clara Pueblo received $199,118 for Rio Grande cutthroat trout. Ysleta del Sur Pueblo received $200,000 for native grassland habitat restoration.
The Peoria Tribe in Oklahoma received $199,998 for artificial propagation of the Neosho Madtom and reintroducing the Neosho Mucket and Rabbitsfoot to the Spring and Neosho Rivers.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne called the Tribal Landowner Incentive and Tribal Wildlife Grant programs "an important tool in the department's effort to support tribal culture and fish and wildlife resource management programs."
The Tribal Landowner Incentive Program will provide more than $2.5 million to fund twenty four projects, and the Tribal Wildlife Grants program will fund thirty six proposals with more than $6.3 million.
The Tribal Landowner Incentive Program grants focus on the protection, restoration and management of habitat to benefit species at risk, including Federally-listed endangered or threatened species, proposed or candidate species, as well as species of tribal concern.
The Tribal Wildlife Grant program provides funding to defray the cost of the implementation of programs that benefit fish and wildlife and their habitat, including species that are not hunted or fished.
The grants made to Federally-recognized Indian tribes were made possible under the Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2002, and through a component of the State Wildlife Grant program. For a listing of all tribal grants, go to: http://www.fws.gov/home/feature/2007/TLIP2007.pdf
A new publication, Tribal Wildlife Grant and Tribal Landowner Incentive Program Periodic Report 2006, provides brief summaries of all grants awarded since the programs were initiated, with feature-length articles on twenty projects. Copies of the report are available through the office of the Native American Liaison by contacting Patrick Durham at pat_durham@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 97-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 547 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 Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
