TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — About $5 million in federal
grants will fund projects targeting aquatic and land-based invasive
species in the Great Lakes region that threaten native fish and damage
the economy, officials said Tuesday.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency announced 11 grants under the Great Lakes Restoration
Initiative, an Obama administration program designed to make progress on
some of the lakes’ most pressing and long-running ecological problems.
Recipients include state and local governments, Native American tribes,
universities and nonprofit organizations.
In addition to battling
exotic species that have already become established, the projects "will
also help to prevent the introduction of new invasive species that pose
risks to the Great Lakes ecosystem," said Susan Hedman, manager of the
EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office in Chicago.
The
restoration initiative has pumped more than $220 million into the fight
against invaders. Nearly $100 million of that went to trying to prevent
aggressive Asian carp, which compete with native fish for food, from
reaching the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
One
of the newly awarded grants, totaling $500,000, went to Michigan
Technological University to prevent the spread of Eurasian watermilfoil
in Lake Huron and Lake Superior. The plant forms dense canopies, snags
boat motors and may cause problems for fish.
"Instead of playing a
game of catch-up, we hope to get out in front of these plants and
control them," university biologist Casey Huckins said.
Another
project dealing with unwanted plants will be conducted by Ducks
Unlimited, which received $500,000 to boost the quality of a 205-acre
coastal wetland area in the Lake Ontario watershed by removing invasive
cattails and preventing new ones from growing.
"Our goal is to
create habitat for waterfowl, northern pike, muskrat, and other animals
and plants that are indicators of healthy and functioning wetlands,"
said Bernie Marczyk, director of conservation programs.
New York’s
State Office of Parks was awarded $410,000 for a "boat stewardship"
program that will educate boaters along the shorelines of Lake Erie,
Lake Ontario, the Niagara River and the St. Lawrence River about ways to
prevent aquatic invaders from hitchhiking aboard their vessels.
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Online:
Grant details: http://1.usa.gov/1mxsefU
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