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Twenty-two environmental projects to share $3 million

Release Date: 04/16/2007
Contact Information: Phillippa Cannon, (312) 353-6218 [email protected] Moira McDonald, (612) 713-5176, [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 07 - OPA061

(Chicago, Ill. - April 16, 2007) Twenty-two environmental restoration projects around the Great Lakes, including two in the Chicago area, will be better funded thanks to the Great Lakes Watershed Restoration Grant program. This year the grants program will provide $1.1 million in federal money and leverage an additional $1.9 million in contributions by non-federal partners to develop and carry out projects to improve local watersheds.

The program is funded by five federal agencies

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
• U.S. Forest Service and
• the Natural Resources Conservation Service

and administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), a private nonprofit organization.

Grants to two Chicago projects, North Park Village Wetland Restoration and Bold Chicago Institute's Calumet Is My Backyard, were announced at an April 16 event at North Park Village Nature Center on the city's north side. The North Park Village project will receive $35,000 and the Bold Chicago Institute will receive $36,350. NFWF also announced a $75,000 grant to the Nature Conservancy for Great Lakes coastal and wetlands restoration.

"EPA is pleased to be a partner in efforts to restore local watersheds," said Gary Gulezian, Director of EPA's Great Lakes National Program Office. "By combining resources, we can more quickly meet the goals of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration to restore, enhance and protect waters of the Great Lakes."

"Ever increasing pressure on our fresh water ecosystems underscores the need to protect and restore the Great Lakes, which represent twenty percent of all fresh water globally," said Jeff Trandahl, Executive Director, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. "We are proud to work with federal, state and local partners to move Great Lakes restoration forward."

Grant recipients are spread throughout the Great Lakes basin and include nonprofit organizations, tribes, state and local governments, conservation districts and universities. The projects address ecological restoration needs identified by the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration.

The grants will be used to develop and implement local plans that address water quality and living resources in Great Lakes watersheds, help restore critical sand dune, wetland, forest and stream habitats and control invasive plant species.

More information about the grants program and this year's projects is available at http://www.nfwf.org

More information about EPA's efforts to protect and restore the Great Lakes is available at https://www.epa.gov/grtlakes