RIVER ACTION
Funding our Future: The 30 by 30 Challenge and Other Local Conservation Goals
Loud Thunder Forest Preserve, Martin Conservation Area Prairie Flowers in Illinois City, IL.
Projects that were approved for funding in 2022 are expected to remove 250 miles of fence for wildlife, reconnect more than 1,300 miles of streams and rivers, and manage more than 130,000 acres of re-dependent land. We see similar things happening locally. Brian Ritter, Executive Director of the Nahant Marsh Education Center, spoke with River Action about such a project. Recently, corridors, large landscapes, watersheds, and seascapes › Improve ecosystem and community resilience to ooding, drought and other climate related threats › Expand access to the outdoors, particularly in underserved communities The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is searching for projects that: › Conserve and restore rivers, coasts, wetlands, and watersheds › Conserve and restore forests, grasslands and other important ecosystems that serve as carbon sinks › Connect and reconnect wildlife
L ast year, the administration launched the $5 billion America the Beautiful Challenge for conservation and restoration projects in the U.S. The goal: Thirty percent more U.S. land and waters protected by 2030, or 720 million acres of land. The Challenge is anchored by an initial $440 million of federal resources for the next 5 years. The responsibility of administering grant funds went to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which will support locally led ecosystem restoration projects. NFWF has leveraged initial funds for the Challenge from the Department of Interior, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Defense. This last year, NFWF received 527 proposals and ended up approving 55 of them, totaling $91 million in federal funding to numerous large-scale and complex conservation and restoration programs around the county. That $91 million will be matched locally with $50.7 million in contributions for a total of $141.7 million. More than one-third of the grant funds from the American the Beautiful Challenge went to support projects and programs organized by Tribal and Native Nations. — by Dayna Kraklio
Nahant Marsh acquired a 60-acre parcel of agricultural land adjacent to the marsh from the Nobis family in Davenport, Iowa. The goal is to restore the farmland into wetlands and prairie and meander an old drainage ditch back into a stream. He is also interested in developing a network of wildlife corridors that better connect Nahant Marsh to other nearby natural areas like the Milan Bottoms, Credit Island and Sunderbruch Park. Besides the restoration e orts at Nahant Marsh, the City of Rock Island also recently acquired over 500 acres of land, much of that land being wetlands, from Riverstone Group. City o cials are still discussing what will be done, but there is interest in using the land for outdoor recreation, like hunting and wildlife watching. It is encouraging to see both local and national e orts for ecological conservation and restoration. To be able to meet climate goals by 2030, we need both small and large projects like these to get us there. Conserving thirty percent of U.S. land and waters is instrumental in the ght against climate change and we should make this one of our 2030 goals.
10 eddy Magazine | www.riveraction.org 10 eddy Magazine | www.riveraction.org
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