• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

$1.3M From Polluters to Fund Conservation Projects

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 August 2004, 06:00 CDT

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are seeking proposals for conservation projects that will be funded with the $1.3 million Columbia River Estuarine Coastal Fund, a collection of community service payments from polluters.

Owners of three ships reached a court-ordered settlement with federal attorneys that resulted in $1.3 million in community service payments for conservation projects in areas impacted by the discharge of pollutants from their ships.

U.S. Coast Guard and Washington Department of Ecology inspectors found evidence of intentional discharges of oily waste on the Agia Erini, Hoegh Minerva and Spring Drake marine vessels in spring 2004 after receiving tips from whistleblowers.

The $1.3 million will be awarded to conservation projects in and along the Lower Columbia River, below Bonneville Dam, along the Oregon coast south to and including Tillamook Bay and along the Washington coast north to and including Willapa Bay. Individual grants will be as large as $200,000 and will be awarded to nonprofit conservation organizations, counties, cities, states and federal agencies. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will oversee the distribution of the grants.

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and Oregon and Washington representatives will work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to review projects for funding.

Grants will be used to finance on-the-ground habitat conservation, restoration and management projects; landowner outreach and incentive programs for restoration and management of natural resources; public use, natural and cultural projects that benefit the National Wildlife Refuge System; collaborative projects from local communities seeking sustainable solutions to natural resource problems; and applied research that is directly related to improvement of natural resources management.

About half of the available funds will be granted through a 2004 Request for Proposals; the rest will be awarded through an RFP in spring 2005. The first round of grants will likely be awarded in March 2005.

The first request for proposals is posted on the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Web site at http://www.nfwf.org. Applications are due by Sept. 17.

For more information, contact Krystyna Wolniakowski of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Pacific Northwest office at 503-417-8700, ext. 22, or wolniakowski@nfwf.org; or Stephen Zylstra of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Environmental Resources Program at 503-231-6179 or stephen-zylstra@fws.gov.

More News in this Category