$61 Million Earmarked For State Wildlife Grants
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will award $61.2 million in wildlife grants to state and territorial wildlife agencies, Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced Friday.
The funding is derived from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This fund receives money mostly from fees paid by companies drilling offshore for oil and gas. Other funding sources include the sale of surplus federal real estate and taxes on motorboat fuel.
Norton said the grants will underwrite conservation partnerships with state wildlife agencies.
The three largest grants of $3,060,095 each will go to Alaska, California and Texas. The next largest grant of $2,945,190 goes to New York, and next largest after that – $2,592,300 goes to Florida. Apportionment of funds is done by a formula based one-third on land area and two-thirds on population.
States may use the funds for project planning or implementation activities. To be eligible for the funding, each state must complete a Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Plan or Strategy by October 1, 2005.
A state may receive no more than five percent or less than 1 percent of the available funds. The District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico receive .5 percent and Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marina Islands receive .25 percent.
Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams said, Because so many issues related to wildlife conservation are not contained by borders, states and the Service must work together to coordinate efforts to conserve endangered and threatened species, manage migrating birds and ensure that the foundations for wildlife management are good science and habitat.”
Current State Wildlife Grant projects taking place with funds awarded in earlier years include work being done by the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division to manage swallow-tailed kites in the Satilla River watershed in southeastern Georgia. The state is also working with nearby landowners for kite conservation.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission is using federal money to protect more than 30,000 bats of six species at two mines in Pennsylvania. The state will install special gates at the entrances to these bat caves–called hibernacula or winter homes – to prevent disturbance and vandalism during periods when these species are highly vulnerable.
The Oklahoma Department of Conservation will use the results of an instream flow study in the states Ecologically Sustainable Water Management process for southeastern Oklahoma rivers. This process will help guide future water management and species conservation for fish and mussel species of conservation concern in the selected watersheds.
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish is translocating and establishing threatened Chiricahua leopard frogs in available and suitable habitats on a large ranch with the cooperation of the landowners. The work will help expand the current range and numbers of Chiricahua leopard frogs, provide insight into the factors involved in their successful translocation, and potentially provide a source population for translocation to other suitable habitats in New Mexico.
Provided by the Environmental News Service.
