Community Updates Wildlife Viewing Grants Awarded
$1.1 Billion in Funding for Outdoor Recreation
The GADNR Wildlife Resources Division announced recently that six projects have been selected as 2018 recipients in the agency’s Wildlife Viewing Grants Program. Funded by the Georgia Nongame Wildlife Conservation Fund and the Georgia Natural Resources Foundation, the grants are aimed at helping develop and enhance viewing options that increase awareness of wildlife, with an emphasis on Wildlife Action Plan species and habitats. Georgia’s Wildlife Action Plan is a comprehensive strategy to conserve these creatures and places before they become rarer and costlier to conserve or restore. This year’s recipients, chosen from more than 20 applicants, are: • Athens-Clarke County: $2,823 for bat boxes and signage on the Oconee Rivers Greenway as part of larger bat-awareness project. • One Hundred Miles: $2,865 for extensive outreach encouraging responsible wildlife viewing on St. Simons-area beaches. • Golden Triangle Resource Conservation and Development Council: $2,750 for kiosks featuring rare species information along a Spring Creek boardwalk in Colquitt. • The Amphibian Foundation: $2,628 for signs interpreting rare salamander propagation at an Atlanta park, the foundation’s home base. • Okefenokee Swamp Park: $2,163 to build a wildlife viewing platform at the Waycross park. • Coastal Georgia Audubon: $1,773 to design and add interpretive signs highlighting shorebird habitat at key viewing sites along the state’s coast. Although the grants are small, the interest they tap is big. According to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey, about 2.4 million people took part in wildlife-viewing activities in Georgia in 2011. The survey estimated related spending at $1.8 billion.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke recently announced more than $1.1 billion in annual national funding for state wildlife agencies from revenues generated by the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration and Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration (PRDJ) acts. To date, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has distributed more than $20.2 billion in apportionments for state conservation and recreation projects. Allocations of the funds are authorized by Congress. “Every time a firearm, fishing pole, hook, bullet, motor boat or boat fuel is sold, part of that cost goes to fund conservation. The best way to increase funding for conservation and sportsmen access is to increase the number of hunters and anglers in our woods and waters. The American conservation model has been replicated all over the world because it works," said Secretary Zinke. These funds support critical state conservation and outdoor recreation projects. They are derived from excise taxes paid by the hunting, shooting, boating and angling industries on firearms, bows and ammunition and sport fishing tackle, some boat engines, and small engine fuel. Georgia hunters contribute to a $1.6 billion effect in yearly economic impact. Angling creates an economic impact to the tune of $2.1 billion each year. Together, hunting and fishing support almost 40,000 jobs in the state. For more information visit wsfrprograms.fws.gov/
Skidaway Island Georgia's First Certified Sustainable Community With help from UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant, The Landings community on Skidaway Island was recently designated by Audubon International as the first Certified Sustainable Community in Georgia. In 2013 by members of Skidaway Audubon who established a Sustainable Skidaway steering committee made up of residents and staff in The Landings, as well as representatives from other entities on the island, including Skidaway Island State Park and UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant. For the last five years, the committee has led the effort to become a Certified Sustainable Community. The long-term sustainability plan approved by Audubon International has over 15 focus areas, including economic development, housing, environment, resource use, agriculture, education and open space, among many others. To receive certification, communities must implement projects in each of these areas that benefit community residents and visitors as well as the natural environment. Anne Lindsay, associate director of marine education at the UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium on Skidaway Island serves on the committee and has been involved in a number of education and outreach projects that helped move the community forward in its John "Crawfish" Crawford and Carolyn McInerney stand near an educational sign designation. One such project was to create and install interpretive about the Skidaway Island Diamondback Terrapin Hatchery Project. signs about historic and natural sites on the island, designed to give Photo provided by UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant residents a deeper understanding of where they live. Another long-term project, in the environment category, is the Skidaway Island Diamondback Terrapin Hatchery Project, overseen by Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant Naturalist John “Crawfish” Crawford. Crawford holds a DNR Scientific Collection Permit, which allows volunteers in the community to retrieve terrapin nests from golf courses, so they aren’t destroyed by predators or machinery. The eggs are transferred to nesting boxes located near the marsh, allowing hatchlings to be released into their natural habitat.
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Southern Tides Magazine
April 2018
