Alaska Tribes Receive $397,590 in Tribal Wildlife Grants
OutdoorHub 05.09.14
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced Tribal Wildlife Grants awards to Native American and Alaska Native tribes funding a wide range of conservation projects across the country.
Tribal Wildlife Grants are used to provide technical and financial assistance to Tribes for the development and implementation of programs that benefit fish and wildlife resources and their habitat. Types of projects that are typically funded include: fish/wildlife population surveys and monitoring, habitat restoration, field and laboratory research, habitat mapping, and conservation planning. The grants are provided exclusively to federally recognized tribal governments and are made possible under the Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2002 through the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants Program.
In Alaska, a total of 8 tribes submitted proposals totaling $1,504,546 for the Service’s consideration. The proposals ranged from developing and implementing management plans on tribal lands to conducting biological baseline surveys. This year, two Alaska Native tribes will receive a total of $397,590 in grant money:
1. **The Native Village of Tazlina—Project Title: Moose Browse
Enhancement Project, $200,000.* The proposal is to conduct a vegetation inventory on the Copper River Basin for the purpose of providing baseline information for moose browse enhancement. The tribe proposes to partner with Ahtna Inc., the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (soil maps), Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game (moose dynamics), National Park Service (ecosystem approach to managing lands), Bureau of Land Management, and Alaska Division of Forestry (forestry practices). The goal is to create a moose habitat enhancement plan after initial baseline data is gathered.
2. **Native Village of Tyonek—Project Title: Tyonek Area Watershed
Action Plan, $197,590. *This proposal seeks to restore, enhance and protect freshwater systems in the Tyonek subsistence sub district including the five species of Pacific salmon (Coho, Chinook, Sockeye, Pink, and Chum) and other anadromous fish. One of the tribe’s main priorities is to protect fish important to the tribe for subsistence purposes. The tribe proposes to participate in area wide watershed planning to identify priority watershed and aquatic resource issues, and establish a watershed monitoring program with an emphasis on: invasive species removal, increasing in-stream and riparian habitat, and conducting outreach to tribal members that explains the information gathered and the importance of habitat restoration and protection.
Since 2003, more than $6 million has gone to Alaska Native tribes through the Tribal Wildlife Grants Program, funding 38 projects involving habitat restoration, population surveys and monitoring, scientific research, and conservation planning. These grants provide technical and financial assistance for the development and implementation of projects that benefit fish and wildlife resources and their habitats, including non-game species.
The Service commends the participating tribes for their work in developing and implementing conservation measures that ultimately will benefit our resources now and into the future. Tribal participation in conservation is a resource that the Service utilizes to meet the mission of the Service as well as that of participating tribes. We congratulate the successful tribes for their effort in producing conservation measures that will serve to meet the needs of the tribes and the resources that they rely on.
Proposals for the 2015 grant cycle are due September 2, 2014.
For information about projects and the Tribal Wildlife Grants application process, visit http://www.fws.gov/nativeamerican/grants.html.
