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FOR SPECIES RECOVERY
12 states to get $3.74M
WASHINGTON—The Department of the Interior announced Friday that through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Cooperative Recovery Initiative, more than $3.74 million is being committed to nine projects across 12 states to help recover some of the nation’s most at-risk species on or near national wildlife refuges.
“We are targeting our work where it will do the most good for America’s resources,” said FWS acting director Jim Kurth. “This initiative is a unique way to engage in conservation work with states and partners, giving the taxpayer a good return on investment.”
Species to benefit from CRI funding include the Miami blue butterfly, ocelots, Puritan tiger beetles, masked bobwhite, and spectacled eiders.
Since 2013, FWS has funded 66 projects for nearly $27 million through the CRI. Other species that have benefited include the Oregon chub, the first fish in the nation to be taken off the endangered species list; Sonoran pronghorn; dusky gopher frog; and red-cockaded woodpecker. These projects often provide conservation benefits to other imperiled species and encourage partnerships with states and private groups.
In the Pacific region, the funding will protect two endangered Hawaiian waterbirds and core wetland habitats at Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge.
A project team will establish long-lasting protections for two endangered birds, the Hawaiian coot and Hawaiian stilt, against predators and ungulates and create new habitat, resulting in a large-scale restoration of Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge, a critically important wetland habitat in Hawaii. (DOI)
