Missoula, MT -(AmmoLand.com)- The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and its partners awarded $880,232 of grant funding toward Washington wildlife habitat enhancement and scientific research. RMEF directly granted $306,741 and leveraged an additional $573,491 in partner funding.
“These funds will pay for a variety of treatments including forest thinning, meadow restoration, prescribed burning, noxious weed treatment, aspen restoration and planting nutritional forbs, all to benefit habitat for elk and many other species of wildlife,” said Blake Henning, RMEF chief conservation officer.
Sixteen projects benefit 6,378 acres of elk habitat across Asotin, Chelan, Clallam, Columbia, Garfield, King, Kittitas, Okanogan, Pend Oreille, Pierce, Skamania, Thurston and Yakima Counties.
There are 23 chapters and nearly 15,000 RMEF members in Washington.
“We greatly appreciate the passion and diligence of our volunteers,” said Kyle Weaver, RMEF president and CEO. “It’s due to their efforts of hosting banquets and other fundraising events that these dollars are generated and put back on the ground in their home state.”
Since 1985, RMEF and its partners completed 693 conservation and hunting heritage outreach projects in Washington with a combined value of more than $128.9 million. These projects protected or enhanced 493,523 acres of habitat and opened or improved public access to 129,732 acres.
Below is a list of Washington’s 2020 projects, designated by county.
Asotin County
- Treat noxious weeds across 871 acres on the Chief Joseph and W.T. Wooten Wildlife Areas in the Blue Mountains to improve year-round elk range (also benefits Columbia and Garfield Counties).
- Treat noxious weeds and apply seeding as needed across 300 acres of big game and riparian habitat in the Lower Grand Ronde River watershed, a tributary of
