Species At Risk Stewardship Fund Projects

For Immediate Release
June 26, 2009

Species At Risk Stewardship Fund Projects
Backgrounder

This year, Ontario is granting almost $300,000 to 11 projects in the southern Georgian Bay and Lake Huron area to protect species at risk and their habitat. Province-wide, the Species at Risk Stewardship Fund will support 118 projects for a total of more than $4 million.

Since many of Ontario's species at risk are found on private lands, voluntary conservation efforts are essential to species recovery. The Species at Risk Stewardship Fund supports greater public involvement in projects which aim to:

• 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.

The projects being funded in the southern Georgian Bay and Lake Huron area are:

Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority - $17,275 to support the implementation of the Old Ausable Channel Management Plan, improving habitat for species at risk, and the development of a Port Franks Management Strategy that will help to protect species at risk in the area

Beausoleil First Nation - $16,615 to raise awareness about species at risk in this First Nations community, and conduct community-based species at risk inventories

Couchiching Conservancy - $73,086 to promote voluntary stewardship on private lands, engage new partners in conservation projects and build long-term relationships for ongoing support of species at risk

Dufferin Aggregates - $10,500 to support the preparation of a conservation plan for species at risk on Carden Plain, creation of outreach material for the aggregate industry and private landowners, and a loggerhead shrike breeding program

Friends of MacGregor Point - $10,300 to enhance educational material and programming related to reptile species at risk found in MacGregor Point Provincial Park and the surrounding Bruce County area

Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve - $34,776 to support an outreach program to increase awareness of species at risk and engage residents of eastern Georgian Bay in actions to help recover these species and their habitat

Huron Stewardship Council - $31,000 to help update habitat use and range information for wood turtles and engage landowners in wood turtle recovery efforts by increasing their awareness and knowledge about the species and encouraging stewardship practices that improve the quality and amount of available habitat

Huron Stewardship Council - $15,700 to encourage the implementation of best management practices to improve water quality and quantity within Huron County watersheds to protect aquatic species at risk

Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation - $46,761 to develop a shoreline stewardship guide, provide support to multiple volunteer piping plover guardian programs, and support habitat stewardship initiatives

Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority - $23,708 to help identify critical lake sturgeon spawning habitats in the middle Nottawasaga River, determine spawning population status, raise public awareness and educate landowners about the role they can play in protecting sturgeon populations and habitat

Sydenham Conservation Foundation - $12,000 to develop a community-based flora and fauna inventory to identify species at risk and their habitat within the Shallow Lake Wetland, including opportunities for public education and engagement in stewardship

For More Information

Jason Travers, Species at Risk, 705-755-1754

General Enquiries

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