The Interior Department's 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.
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.
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.
A list of tribal grants in the Southeast follows:
TLIP: 2007 Awards
Florida:
Seminole Tribe of Florida, FL -- $120,000, Habitat Assessment and Management to Support Florida Panther and Other Species on the Seminole Indian Reservations
North Carolina:
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, NC -- $90,000, Wetland Delineation and Southern Brook Trout Habitat Enhancement
TWG: 2007 Awards
Mississippi:
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians , MS -- $185,000, Choctaw Tribal Wildlife Program
North Carolina:
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, NC -- $200,000, EBCI Habitat Assessment and Wildlife Surveys
For a national list, please go to http://www.fws.gov/home/feature/2007/TLIP2007.pdf
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.
