U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded a total $3.46 million in wetland grant funding to nine communities around the Pacific Southwest, making investments in states, tribes and territories to protect and improve water quality, provide habitat for fish and other wildlife, maintain surface water flow during dry periods, store floodwaters and protect against storm surges.
Grant awards include $467,075 to Hawai‘i which will be used for expansion of community stewardship at restored wetland sites throughout the islands, while increasing coordination among agencies, landowners and organizations working on wetland restoration and reducing regulatory barriers for wetland restoration practitioners.
“Maintaining the quantity and quality of our nation’s wetlands is essential for long-term resilience,” said Environmental Protection Agency Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Mike Martucci. “These investments give tribes, states and territories the tools and technical capacity to protect the wetlands their communities depend on for clean water, wildlife habitat and flood protection.”
The other grant awards are:
- $500,000 to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to develop a wetland program plan for Saipan, Tinian and Rota that will protect vital wetland ecosystems from pollution and improve aquatic resource restoration activities.
- $499,727 to the Yurok Tribe to protect and restore the Klamath River headwater wetlands.
- $454,832 to the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians to inventory wetlands and other aquatic resources on tribal trust lands, create a unique planting guide for culturally significant vegetation and complete a small-scale wetland restoration demonstration project.
- $406,972 to the White Mountain Apache Tribe to update wetland ecosystem mapping databases, conduct wildlife surveys and conduct outreach and education to partner organizations and community representatives.
- $399,965 to the Tolowa Dee-Ni Nation to plan watershed and aquatic resource restoration and develop assessment methods using indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge.
- $397,461 to Nevada to improve the state’s springs inventory and develop a guide for Nevada wetland types and common wetland plants.
- $210,585 to the Hualapai Tribal Council to update a wetland program plan that includes water quality monitoring and analysis, reduction of polluted runoff, wetlands identification and protection and tribal outreach and education.
- $127,894 to the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe to restore a wetland meadow next to Summit Lake using experimental restoration techniques that mimic a naturally occurring beaver dam.
Selected projects build capacity to develop or refine wetland protection and management programs.
These programs support community resilience through wetland monitoring and mapping information, gold-standard science-based assessment tools and development of long-standing wetland conservation and protection strategies.
Grant recipients build awardee capacity to increase the quantity and quality of U.S. wetlands.
Learn more about Pacific Southwest Region at its website, and connect with Environmental Protection Agency on Facebook, Instagram and X.
