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Ducks Unlimited receives NAWCA grant to conserve Idaho and Montana wetlands 4/23/2007 MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Ducks Unlimited was recently awarded a North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) grant to conserve wetland habitat in Lower Clark Fork River/Lake Pend Oreille Watershed. Project partners will protect, restore, or enhance 3,174 acres of public and private lands in the watershed—on more than 20 parcels in total. The 1.2 million-acre Lower Clark Fork River/Lake Pend Oreille watershed is located in the Rocky Mountains of Montana and Idaho. Its vast and diverse landscape offers important habitat to migratory birds and other wildlife, but increasing pressures for residential development have been negatively affecting habitats. “This grant will help DU biologists and our partners put high quality habitat on the landscape, said DU Regional Biologist Ivan Lines. “NAWCA grants are crucial to DU’s ability to restore and protect wetlands and allow DU to leverage the support of our members and partners to conserve even more habitat” Ducks Unlimited partnered with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG), Avista Corporation, Robert Dunnagan, Judy Hutchins, Wild Horse Trail, The Conservation Fund, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Trout Unlimited, Clark Fork-Pend Oreille Conservancy, U.S. Forest Service, Green Mountain Conservation District, Sanders County Resource Advisory Committee, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Approximately $2.7 million in matching funds from project partners and $1 million in NAWCA grant funds will restore, protect and enhance wetlands critical to waterfowl within the Lower Clark Fork River/Lake Pend Oreille Watershed. Lines said he expects the project to take two years to complete. In Idaho, partners will protect the 41-acre Wild Horse Trail Tract through fee-title donation and conservation easement acquisition; purchase a perpetual conservation easement on the 133-acre Ruen Tract; protect the 67-acre Dunnagan Tract along Pack River through a donated conservation easement; restore three acres of Granite Creek; and enhance 574 acres of Pack River Delta wetlands. In Montana, partners will acquire fee title on the 2-acre Graves Creek Tract and on 1,281 acres in the State’s Bull River Wildlife Management Area; purchase conservation easements on two parcels totaling 189 acres along Bull River; and permanently protect another 824 acres along Bull River through donated conservation easements on three parcels. Partners will also restore 17 acres of riparian and wetland habitats on six tracts, and enhance 43 acres on another four tracts, along tributaries of the Lower Clark River. The partners’ efforts in the project area will benefit numerous species of water birds including ducks, geese, swans, shorebirds and mergansers including several threatened or endangered species such as the bull trout, bald eagle, grizzly bear, gray wolf and Canada Lynx. |
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