Friday, August 12, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

$284,847 in grants will help Nevada conservation projects

Duck Valley tribe to survey Blue Creek wetlands wildlife, habitat

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grants to a Nevada tribe and for a pair of conservation partners in Nevada will total $284,847, Interior Department officials said Thursday.

The Duck Valley Shoshone-Paiutes will receive $149,347 to survey wildlife and habitat in the Blue Creek wetlands for development of a wetlands plan. The wetlands cover an area that straddles Nevada and Idaho.

The funding is part of $32 million in cost-share grants the Interior Department announced to fund conservation projects by states, tribes and private landowners in 49 states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

The department's Fish and Wildlife Service awarded the grants under four programs.

A $55,000 grant went to the Sampson Creek Ecological Restoration Project in White Pine County to restore 800 acres of private land in the Sampson Creek watershed. The project is a partnership between the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition, the Nevada Department of Wildlife, the state Division of Forestry and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Management of the habitat near sheep ranches through fencing, weed treatments and thinning of pinyon pine and juniper trees will benefit sage grouse and the North American pygmy rabbit.

An $80,500 grant will be used to restore a springfish and spring snail reserve in Nye County. The project is another partnership of wildlife agencies and a landowner to restore Hardy springs and stream habitat for the Pyrgulopsis spring snail and the Moorman White River springfish.