Hawai'i receives $2.8 million in wildlife grants

Advertiser Staff

Nearly $2.8 million has been awarded to the state by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to promote the conservation of threatened and endangered species.

The awards are part of more than $26 million made available to states under four new types of Endangered Species Act Grants.

"These grants are very much in line with my philosophy that states should be given more resources and greater flexibility to protect habitat and conserve threatened and endangered species," said Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton. "States will use these grants to strengthen and build vital and cost-effective conservation partnerships with local communities and willing private landlords, partnerships that are essential to helping species prosper and recover."

Congress financed the grants to respond to the growing interest shown by states and landowners in managing their lands in ways that benefit species and their habitats. Non-federal project partners contributed an average of 25 percent of their projects' total costs.

The largest block of money awarded to Hawai'i is through the Safe Harbor Grant type. These grants provide money to states for planning, development and implementation of Safe Harbor Agreements for listed species on state, private and other non-federal lands. The $1,147,206 awarded to Hawai'i provides money for 13 different projects throughout the Islands.

"With our significant number of threatened and endangered species, many of which are found only on non-federal lands, Hawai'i competed very well for this category of Section 6 grant," said Paul Henson, field supervisor for the Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office.

Hawai'i also will receive $981,899 in Candidate Conservation Agreement Grants, which provide money to address the needs of species not yet listed as threatened or endangered.

The third type of grant awarded is for Recovery Land Acquisition to support endangered species recovery plans.

The Department of Land and Natural Resources was awarded $150,000 to purchase five remaining in-holdings at Ka'ena Point to create one large tract of land for the conservation of 12 species, including the Hawaiian monk seal, green sea turtle and several plant species.

The habitat represents one of the last intact dune-and-boulder slope ecosystems in the island chain.

A portion of a $517,134 Habitat Conservation Plan grant will be used to develop a conservation plan for game mammal management in North Kona, Hawai'i, that will lead to management and recovery actions for up to 34 listed plants, 10 listed animals and 14 species of concern.

The remainder of the grant will enable partners to conduct surveys and develop habitat conservation strategies for the Hawaiian hoary bat, the only surviving land mammal native to the Hawaiian archipelago.

Lack of detailed knowledge about the bat's distribution, abundance and habitat needs makes it difficult to assess the potential impact of land use activities on the bat and impedes the development of effective land use policy.