Five Star Restoration Program Announces Almost $800K in Grants to
Support America's Wetlands
Innovative partnership works closely with communities to foster
conservation
WASHINGTON - The National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation, National Association of Counties (NACo) and the Wildlife
Habitat Council (WHC) today announced that the Five Star Restoration
Program will award new grants totaling $765,429 to 27 different
community-led wetland and streamside restoration projects nationwide.
These communities have committed an additional $2.2 million in local
project support.
The Five Star Restoration Program, founded in 1999, receives major
funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Southern
Company and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company's (PG&E) Nature
Restoration Trust. This year, projects in California are also receiving
funds from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. Since its founding, Five
Star has supported 478 projects with more than $4.1 million in federal
funds, $900,000 in corporate contributions and $12.5 million in matching
funds at the local level.
"America needs more people to step up and become stewards of our
precious wetlands," said Jeff Trandahl, executive director of the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, "and the Five Star Restoration
program specializes in fostering exactly this type of conservation
ethic. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is extremely proud to
collaborate with a diverse range of partners to continue to build
community connections across America through the program."
"EPA is proud to support the Five Star Restoration Program because of
the opportunities it provides communities acting through partnerships to
restore and improve wetlands, streams and coasts," said EPA Acting
Assistant Administrator for Water, Michael H. Shapiro.
"PG&E is delighted to support habitat and wetlands restoration
projects in the communities we serve," said Steven L. Kline, vice
president of corporate environmental and federal affairs for PG&E
Corporation. "Environmental stewardship is one of our company's core
values, and supporting these projects is one of the ways that we're able
to continue to conserve California's diverse habitats."
"Southern Company is proud of its longstanding partnership with the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to provide conservation challenge
grants to leading organizations throughout the Southeast," said Chris
Hobson, Southern Company's senior vice president for research and
environmental affairs. "The Five Star grants serve to further the
important grassroots efforts working on-the-ground to restore and
protect our wetlands, streams and coasts and the wildlife that inhabit
them."
"On behalf of the nation's counties, I congratulate the 2009 NACo
Five Star grantees," said NACo President Don Stapley, supervisor,
Maricopa County, Ariz. "NACo is very proud of its longstanding support
of the Five Star Restoration Program. Counties and their partners across
the country are fostering environmental stewardship and building diverse
partnerships that promise to restore and protect the environment well
into the future."
Major funding for the program comes from EPA's Office of Wetlands,
Oceans and Watersheds. In addition to federal funding, PG&E has
committed $1 million over three years through its Nature
Restoration Trust, and Southern Company has committed $1.2 million
over five-years to Five Star.
The Five Star 2009 winners were selected from a competitive pool of
more than 165 applications. Consideration for funding is based upon the
educational and training opportunities for youth and the community at
large, the ecological and other cultural and economic benefits to the
community. Five Star projects must also involve a high degree of
partnership between local government agencies, elected officials,
community groups, businesses, schools, and environmental organizations
for improving local water quality and restoring important fish and
wildlife habitats. For a full list of the 2009 grant winners please
visit www.nfwf.org/fivestar and http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/restore/5star/.
Project Spotlight
In Northwest Georgia, the Conasauga River Alliance will partner with
the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Tennessee Aquarium
Aquatic Research Institute, Badger Farm Bed and Breakfast, Murray County
Public Works, and the Limestone Valley RC&D Council to restore the
heavily silted Colvard Spring. Cleaning the stream will improve vital
habitat for the Georgia-listed Coldwater darter. Georgia Department of
Natural Resources proposes to evaluate Colvard as a safe-guard
population site for Tennessee yellow-eyed grass, a federal endangered
wetland plant of the Limestone Ridge and Valley Province. The project
will result in the restoration of a 1.5 acre spring pool habitat and a
demonstration workshop for county, landowner, and resource
managers.
In New Mexico, the Sky Island Alliance will partner with the New
Mexico Environment Department, U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service to restore a degraded creek and wetland. This
project will reconnect one of the largest desert ciénegas to its
subsurface water source and protect a large population of Chiricahua
leopard frogs. Cloverdale Ciénega is a historic wetland of
approximately 150 acres of which 90 acres has dried. Partners on the
project will remove all levees and plug the spillway gully with material
from the removal of the levees as a coordinated set of restoration
treatments. The water table is expected to rise, and the ciénega
surface should become fully saturated, eventually killing the upland
species that have invaded the site, as a natural transition back to a
wetland plant community occurs over the next decade.
In California, Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz
County will partner with the Water District, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, Soquel Neighborhood Alliance, Natural Resources Conservation
Service, County Weed Management and several local schools to restore
1.25 acres of degraded riparian habitat. The project will reduce
invasive plant species along lower Soquel Creek where the steelhead
population is declining. This restoration project will lead to a more
educated community with conservation values and place-based connections
with Soquel Creek by involving students and the public in hands-on
restoration and educational activities.
The National Association of Counties (NACo) is the only national
organization that represents county governments in the United States.
Founded in 1935, NACo provides essential services to the nation's 3,068
counties. NACo advances issues with a unified voice before the federal
government, improves the public's understanding of county government,
assists counties in finding and sharing innovative solutions through
education and research, and provides value-added services to save
counties and taxpayers money. For more information about NACo, visit www.naco.org.
The Wildlife Habitat Council is a nonprofit, non-lobbying
organization dedicated to increasing the quality and amount of wildlife
habitat on corporate, private and public lands. WHC devotes its
resources to building partnerships with corporations and conservation
groups to create solutions that balance the demands of economic growth
with the requirements of a healthy, biodiverse and sustainable
environment. More than 2.4 million acres in 48 states, Puerto Rico and
16 other countries are involved in WHC-assisted projects. For more
information, visit WHC online at www.wildlifehc.org.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation, is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric
utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with 20,000
employees, the company delivers some of the nation's cleanest energy to
15 million people in northern and central California. For more
information, visit www.pge.com.
With 4.3 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of
generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the
premier energy company serving the Southeast, one of America's
fastest-growing regions. A leading U.S. producer of electricity,
Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing
competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless
communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer
service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are
significantly below the national average. Southern Company has been
listed the top ranking U.S. electric service provider in customer
satisfaction for seven consecutive years by the American Customer
Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Visit our Web site at www.southerncompany.com.
A nonprofit established by Congress in 1984, the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation sustains, restores and enhances the Nation's fish,
wildlife, plants and habitats. Through leadership conservation
investments with public and private partners, NFWF is dedicated to
achieving maximum conservation impact by developing and applying best
practices and innovative methods for measurable outcomes. Since its
establishment, NFWF has awarded over 10,000 grants to over 3,500
organizations in the United States and abroad and leveraged - with its
partners - more than $600 million in federal funds into more than $1.5
billion for on-the-ground conservation. For more information, visit www.nfwf.org.
