SPECIES AT RISK STEWARDSHIP FUND

For Immediate Release
June 26, 2008

SPECIES AT RISK STEWARDSHIP FUND
Backgrounder

Ontario’s $18-million, four-year Species at Risk Stewardship Fund encourages and supports public stewardship activities.  The fund supports Ontario’s commitment to a stewardship-first approach in the new Endangered Species Act.

The stewardship fund is open to individuals and groups across the province including landowners, farmers, Aboriginal peoples, education or research institutions, conservation organizations, industries, municipalities, stewardship councils and others who undertake eligible protection and recovery activities.

Application forms and guidelines are available at ontario.ca/speciesatrisk or by telephoning  705-755-5340.  Eligible proposals will be reviewed and final selection made by the ministry.

To be eligible for funding, a proposal must aim to achieve one or more of the following:

• Improve the status of species at risk and their habitats through stewardship and recovery activities
• Encourage involvement in stewardship activities through outreach, education or youth employment
• Increase stewardship-related knowledge and skills of interested landowners or groups
  Support the securement of species at risk habitat by working with willing landowners.

LOCAL STEWARDSHIP PROJECTS RECEIVE FUNDING FOR SPECIES AT RISK PROTECTION

Thirty-four volunteer projects in southwestern Ontario will receive more than $1.425 million from the provincial Species at Risk Stewardship Fund this year to help protect and recover species at risk and their habitats.

Long Point Region Conservation Authority – $32,000 to support the protection and restoration of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in Long Point area watersheds. Activities will include habitat restoration and landowner education.

Contact: Paul Gagnon, 519-428-4623, Ext. 232

Long Point World Biosphere Reserve Foundation – $30,300 to protect species crossing the Long Point Causeway and reduce wildlife roadkill. The project will include alerting motorists, erecting barrier fencing, providing alternative turtle nesting sites and monitoring the effectiveness of these measures.

Contact: Bernie Solymar, 519-426-7124

Carolinian Canada Coalition – $267,000 to support ways for landowners, young people and local community leaders to work together to protect and restore species at risk habitat.

Contact: Michelle Kanter, 519-433-7077

Norfolk County Stewardship Council – $70,500 to support a three-year pilot project that will evaluate how the alternative land use services concept works in restoring a healthy landscape in rural countryside. Stewardship activities include tallgrass prairie restoration.

Contact: Dan Provoost, 519-875-4392

Norfolk County Field Naturalists– $14,300 to improve the quality and quantity of habitat by removing exotic species and restoring native plants.

Contact: Peter Carson, 519-586-3985

St. Clair Region Conservation Authority– $25,000 to support a partnership to assist local landowners with erosion control and wind protection in an effort to improve habitat by reducing sedimentation and nutrient loading in local waterways.

Contact: Brian McDougall, 519-245-3710

St. Clair Region Conservation Authority – $16,000 to support an inventory of species at risk in more than 1800 hectares of Carolinian woodlands owned by the conservation authority. The information will help in developing plans for habitat improvement.

Contact: Brian McDougall, 519-245-3710

Walpole Island Heritage Centre – $34,650 to support a youth summer employment stewardship program, increase community awareness and involvement in stewardship initiatives through community outreach, continue work on prescribed burn planning, and conduct an inventory of at-risk reptiles on Walpole Island.

Contact: Aimee Johnson, 519-627-1475

Upper Thames River Conservation Authority – $32,500 to support ongoing work to recover species at risk within the Upper Thames River watershed through monitoring, habitat improvement, stewardship, outreach and education.

Contact: Chris Harrington, 519-451-2800

Elgin Stewardship Council – $13,500 to support the collection of data to develop a series of field guides and workshops to help workers better predict fire behavior and intensity when undertaking prescribed burns to restore tallgrass prairie habitat.

Contact: Russ Wiltsie, 519-765-1013 

Essex County Stewardship Council – $25,000 to support a partnership of local community, hunting and environmental groups in assisting landowners interested in creating and restoring species at risk habitat on their lands.

Contact: Jason Fuerth, 519-723-9134

Essex Region Conservation Authority – $50,240 to support a landowner outreach and education project aimed at fish habitat protection, restoration and enhancement.

Contact: Matthew Child, 519-776-5209

Kent County Stewardship Council – $22,400 to support a sand spit recovery and awareness project.  The project includes a three-season botanical inventory and placement of wooden barriers to protect sand spits from trampling by human foot paths and off-road vehicles.

Contact: Rick Siddall, 519-354-7114

Kent County Stewardship Council – $20,000 to support restoration of wetland and tallgrass prairie habitats that support 19 endangered, threatened or special concern species.  The project will also construct a snake hibernaculum targeting eastern fox snake and milk snake

Contact: Rick Siddall, 519-354-7114

Rural Lambton Stewardship Council – $17,400 to support a partnership project assisting in the recovery of the Eastern Prairie fringed-orchid and other species at risk negatively affected by the spread of the invasive strain of a plant that has taken over wetlands across the Great Lakes basin.

Contact: Doug McGee, 519-627-3932

Savanta – $19,500 to reduce the threat of invasive species to Lake Erie sand spit savannas which are among the rarest ecosystems in North America and support a high proportion of threatened and endangered species.

Contact: Kate Hayes, 416-226-3786

Jaffa Environmental Education Centre – $13,875 to support a series of curriculum-based activities that will provide student with hands-on, interactive opportunities to learn about the importance of forests, forestry conservation and protection, biodiversity and species at risk.

Contact: Lauren Selby, 519-773-5196

Middlesex Stewardship Council – $37,500 to support an outreach partnership project to involve Scouts Canada youth in a tallgrass prairie restoration project

Contact: Don Fairbairn, 519-641-8540

Township of Pelee Island – $175,000 to support a species at risk outreach, recovery and monitoring project working in cooperation with the Pelee Island Bird Observatory, Pelee Island Heritage Center and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Contact: Rick Masse, 519-724-2931

Bird Studies of Canada – $89,900 to support stewardship activities for birds at risk in threatened ecosystems, including hooded warbler, bald eagle, chimney swift, and short-eared owl.  The project also involves outreach, education and training to enable young people and others to get involved in protecting Ontario’s birds at risk.

Contact: Debbie Badzinski, 519-586-3531, Ext. 211

Bird Studies Canada – $36,700 to support a nest box program for Prothonotary warblers, improve warbler habitat by removing invasive populations of European black alder, and update a website providing the most current information on status of the species, conservation issues and recovery needs.

Contact: Jon McCracken, 519-586-3531, Ext. 205

Haldimand Stewardship Council – $18,768 to support the development of a stewardship guide and presentation to educate employees of companies in the Lake Erie Industrial Park about the unique ecosystem and species at risk in the park, and what they can do to help protect and restore these species.

Contact: Pat D’Haeseleer, 905-701-4831

Ontario Heritage Trust – $7,392 to support protection of the Lake Erie water snake by making a protected easement area more visible and by undertaking educational outreach with landowners along the easement.

Contact: Barbara Heidenreich, 416-314-4918

Wildlife Preservation Canada – $83,500 to support implementation of a recovery strategy for Eastern loggerhead shrike. Efforts include monitoring birds in the wild, managing and releasing a captive population, habitat mapping, stewardship and restoration, and public education.

Contact: Elaine Williams, 519-836-9314

Tallgrass Ontario – $12,500 to support inventory and GIS mapping of tallgrass prairie habitats to assess conservation status and set restoration priorities. Includes outreach efforts to increase landowner awareness of tallgrass prairie and savanna habitats and the species that depend on them.

Contact: Graham Buck, 519-873-4631

Hamilton Naturalists – $29,995 to support inventory and mapping of species, analyze threats and conservation opportunities and undertake invasive species control in nature sanctuaries that are home to at least 20 species at risk.

Contact: Al Ernest, 905-689-9466

Waterloo County Stewardship Council – $14,100 to support restoration of tallgrass prairie habitat in Waterloo and Brant counties through prescribed burns, removal of invasive species and planting of appropriate tallgrass prairie vegetation.

Contact: Wayne Buck, 519-662-2529

Royal Botanical Gardens – $30,000 to support a multi-species stewardship effort, including monitoring species, enhancing woodland and wetland habitat, and public education outreach in one of the largest natural areas in the largely urban Hamilton region.

Contact: Ben Porchuk, 905-527-1158

Ruthven Park – $21,000 to implement an action plan for monitoring and recovery of species at risk in Ruthven Park, promoting good stewardship and increased public awareness.

Contact: Marilynn Havelka, 905-772-0560

Six Nations – $31,700 to support a survey of species at risk habitats and threats on Six Nations properties using modern mapping technology, as well as traditional First Nations ecological knowledge and sightings.

Contact: Allan Arthur, 519-445-0013

Nature Conservancy of Canada – $44,380 to support a partnership stewardship strategy to conserve habitat for five species at risk on property in Fonthill including community outreach, habitat restoration, species recovery and monitoring.

Contact: Heather Arnold, 519-640-6816

Land Care Niagara – $51,585 to support stewardship outreach and recovery actions including habitat enhancement for the common hop tree, swamp rose-mallow, butternut tree, and flowering dogwood.

Contact: Stephen Prior, 905-685-9215

Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority – $22,170 to support a partnership project to carry out the first detailed natural areas inventory in the Niagara-Haldiman areas.

Contact: Deanna Lindblad, 905-788-3135, Ext. 241

Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority – $15,300 to support recovery efforts for the spoon-leaved moss through surveys of areas where the moss occurs, developing and implementing restoration techniques, as well as educational outreach and stewardship guidelines.

Contact: Kim Frohlich, 905-788-3135, Ext. 241

For More Information

Media Enquiries

Jason Travers, Fish and Wildlife Branch, 705-755-1754

General Enquiries

Natural Resources Information Centre
1-800-667-1940
TTY 1-866-686-6072 (Hearing Impaired)