According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, three Alaska tribes will receive a total of almost $600,000 in tribal wildlife grants. Tribal wildlife grants assist federally recognized tribes in carrying out activities that benefit fish and wildlife and their habitats.
The Native Village of Newtok’s grant will allow the Nelson Island Consortium to develop a Conservation Plan designed to protect, enhance, and restore Nelson Island’s wildlife and habitat in perpetuity.
The Consortium, made up of seven federally recognized tribes that use Nelson Island as their primary subsistence area, will work with Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge staff to augment and support the refuge’s Comprehensive Conservation plan, scheduled for updating in 2012.
In Gambell and Savoonga, granted funds will support the Tribal enforcement of local marine mammal ordinances. The Tribes (Native Village of Gambell and Native Village of Savoonga) will work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to increase local capacity to conserve and monitor marine mammal resources, conduct community education efforts to benefit walrus, enhance walrus research and monitoring, and ultimately help conserve walrus through more effective local management.
Native Village of Eyak will use its grant to construct a moose calf weaning and rearing facility near Cordova, Alaska and to operate the program for two years. The goal is to wean and raise as many as 5 moose calves orphaned along Alaska’s road system per year, and to release these animals onto the Copper River Delta. The project is intended to inject new genetic diversity into the area’s isolated moose herd.
Geoffrey Haskett, the Service’s Alaska Regional Director, said, “Conservation is bigger than any agency or individual, and it is only by working together that we can hope to meet the challenges we all face. Our Alaska Native partners are among our most valued allies, and I’m confident that these three grants will bring long-term benefits to the fish, wildlife, and habitats of our state.”
Nationwide, tribal grants totaling more than $7 million were awarded to 37 Native American tribes in 16 states, including the 3 tribes in Alaska.
source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service