WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today announced more than $6.2 million in grants will go to 38 Native American projects in 18 states to fund a wide range of conservation projects nationwide.
“Tribal Wildlife Grants are much more than a fiscal resource for tribes. The projects and partnerships supported by this program have enhanced our commitment to Native Americans and to the United States’ shared wildlife resources,” Secretary Kempthorne said.
More than $34 million has gone to Native American tribes through the Tribal Wildlife Grants program in the past six years, providing funding for 175 conservation projects administered by 133 participating federally-recognized tribes. The grants provide technical and financial assistance for the development and implementation of efforts that benefit fish and wildlife resources and their habitat, including species that are not hunted or fished.
“The Tribal Wildlife Grants program has helped the Service to collaborate more effectively with Native American tribes in conserving and restoring the vast diversity of fish and wildlife habitat that they manage,” added the Interior Department’s Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Lyle Laverty.
The grants have enabled tribes to develop increased management capacity, improve and enhance relationships with partners including state agencies, address cultural and environmental priorities, and heighten interest of tribal students in fisheries, wildlife and related fields of study. Some grants have been awarded to enhance recovery efforts for threatened and endangered species.
The grants are provided exclusively to federally-recognized Indian tribal governments and are made possible under the Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2002, and through a component of the State Wildlife Grant program.
During the current grant cycle, tribes submitted a total of 110 proposals that were scored by panels in each Service Region using uniform ranking criteria. A national scoring panel recommended 38 proposals for funding.
The grants cover a wide range of conservation projects, including:
- A grant for $49,791 for the Band of Pomo Indians in California for the Big Valley Rancheria Clear Lake Hitch Study Project. The Clear Lake Hitch is a culturally significant native fish in Clear Lake. This multi-tribal effort will seek to accelerate the recovery of this fish and to provide stock to other streams in the watershed.
- A grant of $62,604 to the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma will help manage the Tribe’s Wildlife Conservation Area, which, among other things, includes the Grey Snow Eagle House (Bah Kho-Je Xla Chi), the first Federally-funded eagle rehabilitation facility in the United States. This facility cares for injured eagles that cannot return to the wild, rehabilitates eagles that are returned to the wild, and utilizes the eagles’ natural molting process to provide eagle feathers for Native American religious and other ceremonies.
- A grant of $199,831 to the confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, located in Washington State, will help the tribe improve management of over-stressed meadow habitat on their 1.4 million acre Yakama reservation in southcentral Washington. Meadows and wetlands in the managed forest occupy just over 8,600 acres and include many ecologically and culturally important wildlife and plant species.
- The Lummi Nation of Washington State will receive a grant of $200,000 to support endangered species recovery work in the Nooksack River Basin. It will seek to restore degraded habitat identified as limiting the production of bull trout, steelhead, Chinook and other salmon.
- The Yurok Tribe of the Klamath River Reserve in northern California will get a $200,000 grant to reintroduce California condors to the Yurok Ancestral Territory. The condor is listed as an endangered species by Federal and State agencies.
(Editors: A list of all Tribal grants follows.)
2008 Tribal Wildlife Grants |
|
|---|---|
| Alaska: | |
| Native Village of Tetlin Moose Management and Restoration Project on Tetlin Tribal Lands |
$198,396 |
| Aleut Community of St. Paul Establishing Long-term Trends of Winter Seaducks, Gulls and Beach-cast Birds on the Pribilof Islands |
$199,804 |
| Sitka Tribe of Alaska Stock Identification of Pacific Herring in Sitka Sound |
$180,316 |
| Native Village of Chickaloon Matanuska Watershed Salmon Habitat Restoration and Research Project |
$199,491 |
| Alabama: | |
| Poarch Band of Creek Indians Gopher Tortoise Reintroduction in Restored Longleaf Pine Habitat and Red Cockaded Woodpecker Safe Harbor Agreement |
$200,000 |
| Arizona: | |
| Colorado River Indian Tribes Mesquite Resource Assessment and Mesquite/Wildlife Integrated Resource Management Plan |
$82,967 |
| California: | |
| Big Valley Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians Big Valley Rancheria Clear Lake Hitch Study |
$49,791 |
| Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake Clear Lake Hitch Study and Recovery Project |
$48,498 |
| Karuk Tribe of California Bluff Creek Habitat Protection Project |
$100,000 |
| Yurok Tribe Yurok Tribe Condor Release Initiative |
$200,000 |
| Robinson Rancheria Clear Lake Hitch Study |
$194,936 |
| Florida: | |
| Miccosukee Tribe of Indians Implementation of the Miccosukee Fisheries Management Plan |
$199,938 |
| Iowa: | |
| Sac and Fox Tribes of the Mississippi in Iowa (Meskwaki) Meskwaki Buffalo Herd and Prairie Restoration |
$195,195 |
| Idaho: | |
| Nez Perce Tribe Restoration of Bighorn Sheep and Habitat along the Main Stem Salmon River |
$200,000 |
| Idaho and Nevada: | |
| Shoshone Paiute Tribe - Duck Valley Reservation Restore Habitat and Monitor the Impacts of West Nile Virus on the Duck Valley Reservation's Greater Sage-grouse Population |
$199,469 |
| Maine: | |
| Aroostook Band of Micmacs Aroostook Band of Micmacs Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Project |
$48,957 |
| Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians Aquatic Habitat Study of the Meduxnekeag Watershed |
$114,645 |
| Minnesota: | |
| Grand Portage Band of Chippewa Indians Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS) Surveillance and Detection in Grand Portage Waters and within the 1854 Ceded Territory |
$199,944 |
| Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Assessment of Double-Crested Cormorant Predation Effects on Selected Fish Species and Colonial Waterbird Management on the Pelican Island Complex in Leech Lake |
$200,000 |
| Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians Gray Wolf Inventory, Monitoring, and Management Plan Development |
$196,015 |
| Montana: | |
| Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes Restoration of Swift Fox on Fort Peck Indian Reservation and Northeastern Montana |
$197,000 |
| Crow Tribe Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout Conservation and Restoration Program |
$200,000 |
| New Mexico: | |
| Mescalero Apache Tribe Comprehensive Habitat Inventory for Restoration of Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation |
$186,762 |
| Pueblo of Jemez Developing Management Plans for Critical Species on Jemez Pueblo |
$196,836 |
| Pueblo of Picuris Developing Wildlife Management Capabilities and Baseline Assessments for Key Species on the Pueblo of Picuris |
$199,941 |
| Pueblo of Santa Clara Riparian Wetland Restoration at the Black Mesa Oxbow |
$199,785 |
| Nevada: | |
| Moapa Band of Paiute Indians Muddy River Habitat Enhancement Project |
$65,397 |
| Oklahoma: | |
| Iowa Tribe Development of a comprehensive management plan for the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma's Wildlife Conservation Area |
$62,604 |
| Oregon: | |
| Burns Paiute Tribe Elimination of Fish Loss within a Burns Paiute Tribe Irrigation Site |
$11,554 |
| Rhode Island: | |
| Narragansett Indian Tribe Indian Cedar Swamp Brook - Riparian and Wetland Restoration |
$199,931 |
| South Dakota: | |
| Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Black-footed Ferret Habitat, Recovery, and Monitoring |
$133,890 |
| Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Research and Management for Black-footed Ferret and Prairie Dog Populations; Balancing Culture, Conservation and Conflict |
$200,000 |
| Oglala Sioux Tribe Kit Fox (Swift Fox) Society |
$200,000 |
| Washington: | |
| Cowlitz Tribe Establishing a Cottonwood Island Sub-population of Columbia White-tailed Deer |
$199,700 |
| Lummi Indian Nation South Fork of Skookum Reach Restoration Project |
$200,000 |
| Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe Establishing Baseline Ecological Information on the Indian and Elwha Valley Elk Herds of the Olympic Peninsula |
$168,745 |
| Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation Meadow Habitat Restoration Project |
$199,831 |
| Wisconsin: | |
| Stockbridge Munsee Community Stockbridge Munsee Fish and Wildlife Project |
$192,690 |