FWS 8.9 million$ to tribes 052207

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Fish and Wildlife Service Director Announces $8.9 Million In Grants to Tribes to Help Conserve Fish and Wildlife

Nearly $1.6 million will go to Tribes in the Pacific Northwest

May 21, 2007, FWS News Release

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. Of this amount, nearly $1.6 million will be distributed to Tribes for projects in Idaho and Washington.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne called the Tribal Landowner Incentive and Tribal Wildlife Grant programs an important part in the department's effort to support tribal sovereignty, 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 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 a program created within the State Wildlife Grant program, also in 2002.

A new publication, Tribal Wildlife Grant and Tribal Landowner Incentive Program Periodic Report 2006, reports brief summaries of all grants 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 pat_durham@fws.gov .

Tribal Landowner Incentive Program Grants awarded in the Pacific Region:

IDAHO: Coeur dâ€™Alene Tribe $110,239 Benewah Creek Channel and Floodplain Enhancement Project

Kootenai Tribe $ 39,950 West Side Lower Kootenai River Tributary Restoration Project

WASHINGTON: Lummi Indian Nation $120,000 South Fork Nessettâ€™s Reach LWD Project

Nisqually Indian Tribe $119,760 Mashel River and Ohop Creek Salmon Habitat Restoration Project

Nooksack Indian Tribe $100,000 South Fork Nooksack Instream Restoration Project's Phase III (Todd Creek)

Yakama Indian Nation $113,920 Habitat Assessment and Strategic Plan for Shrub-Steppe Wildlife of the Yakama Nation

Tribal Wildlife Grants awarded in the Pacific Region:

IDAHO: Coeur de Alene Tribe $119,292 Sharp-tailed Grouse Habitat Assessment on Hangman Creek

Shoshone Paiute Tribes, Duck Valley Reservation $199,878 Survey and Monitor the Impacts of West Nile Virus on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation's Greater Sage-grouse Population

WASHINGTON: Colville Confederated Tribes $149,712 Columbia Sharp-tailed Grouse Monitoring and Augmentation Project

Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe $ 73,869 Lamprey Assessment Project

Puyallup Tribe $200,000 South Rainier Elk Herd Management and Habitat Selection Study

Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe $198,373 Assessment of Habitat Selection of Mountain Goats and Elk in the North Cascades Mountains of Washington State

More details about each of the projects can be found at http://www.fws.gov/pacific/ea/tribal

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 547 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources 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 and Native American tribal 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.