Conservation Act designates $5 million to wetlands restoration and protection

Healthy wetlands are key to healthy ecosystems.  There’s also growing awareness of the vital role wetlands play in addressing climate change and in mitigating extreme weather events such as flooding and drought.  But wetlands continue to be lost, across the globe, throughout the U.S., and here in Minnesota.

“The most recent reports by the Fish & Wildlife Service have indicated that emergent wetlands in the U.S. actually continue to be destroyed at rate of 58,000 acres a year.”

That’s Ashley Spratt, with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Midwest Regional Office.

“It’s primarily due to agriculture and essentially the draining of our wetlands for agriculture,” says Spratt. “It certainly was not something that happened over night.  But gradually, with increasing demands for water, those wetlands have diminished over the years. Fortunately, we are able to restore some of those wetlands, working in partnership with different agricultural communities to either restore areas that have been transferred into cropland, or protect certain areas from being turned into agricultural land as well. And this is all for the purpose of benefitting those birds and species that use wetlands.  And we know, of course, here in Minnesota and across the Dakotas, this was historically the Prairie Pothole Region, where wetlands were a predominant part of the habitat.  We’ve seen that decrease over the years and as much as 90 percent of our wetlands here in Minnesota have been diminished.  So these types of restoration projects are so critically important, especially for the waterfowl that are breeding here in the upper Midwest.”

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recently announced the approval of $5 million dollars in federal grants to help protect, restore, and enhance more than 22,000 acres of wetlands and other habitat in the Upper Midwest.  The Federal grants are matched by more than $13 million in partner funds. Funding is through the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), passed in 1989.

“The North American Wetlands Conservation Act is actually something that allows grants to be given to different organizations that have the ability and capacity to provide matching funds and then carry out wetlands conservation projects.  It actually crosses from the U.S. into Canada, as well as Mexico.  One specific project that I wanted to mention in Polk County, MN is our Glacial Ridge landscape expansion project.  And that is actually going to add an additional 3,700 acres of wetlands and native and restored prairie to the already existing Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge.  So, this particular federal grant of $ 1 million dollars is going to go to essentially protect those 3,700 additional acres as part of the refuge system. And then that’s one of the larger projects that are benefitting from this Act.”

Final funding for all NAWCA projects is dependent on congressional approval in the final Fiscal Year 2011 budget.

“This funding is incredibly important to our division of bird habitat conservation. We are kind of just waiting to see how the budget plays out, and certainly the hope is that we’ll have the funding to do the work that has been proposed in these proposals, but that really is still up in the air.”

NAWCA Projects funded in the Midwest Region:

Upper Iowa Prairie Pothole Partnership - Phase II
Federal grant: $1,000,000 Partner match: $2,005,000 Acreage: 762
Ducks Unlimited will work with partners to protect, restore, and enhance 538 acres of wetlands and 224 acres of associated uplands in a high priority area for breeding waterfowl in the Prairie Pothole region of northern Iowa.

Southcentral Wisconsin Prairie Pothole Initiative V
Federal grant: $1,000,000 Partner match: $4,477,920 Acreage: 3,654
The Natural Heritage Trust will continue to work with partners in to protect, restore, and enhance 2,399 acres of wetlands and 1,255 acres of upland habitat on public and private lands throughout southcentral Wisconsin.

Southeast Wisconsin Coastal Habitat Initiative - Phase V
Federal grant: $1,000,000 Partner match: $3,082,988 Acreage: 1,891
This partnership will expand upon previous efforts by Ducks Unlimited and a broad partnership in southeastern Wisconsin to protect, restore, and enhance 1,285 acres of wetlands and 606 acres of associated uplands, in a key area for breeding waterfowl and other wetland-dependent birds.

Glacial Ridge Prairie Landscape Expansion (MN)
Federal grant: $1,000,000 Partner match: $2,482,689 Acreage: 4,758
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, working in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, the Red Lake Watershed District, and the Minnesota Land Trust, will protect 4,758 acres of wetland and associated upland habitat, of which 3,743 acres will be added to the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge in Polk County, Minnesota.

Glaciated Wetlands and Prairies of North Dakota and Minnesota
Federal grant: $1,000,000 Partner match: $1,038,172 Acreage: 11,717
Ducks Unlimited will work with partners to protect 11,717 acres of the highest priority wetland and upland habitat on private lands across the Prairie Pothole region in western Minnesota and North Dakota.