U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- MISSOULA, Mont. — The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and its partners awarded $542,481 in grant funding to enhance wildlife habitat and assist scientific wildlife research in New Mexico. RMEF directly granted $71,481 and leveraged an additional $471,000 in partner dollars.
“New Mexico features beautiful landscapes and prime habitat but it can also be extremely dry and arid. Some of this funding goes directly toward water developments to help elk and other wildlife during seasons they need it the most,” said Blake Henning, RMEF chief conservation officer. “Additional funding is earmarked to benefit grasslands, meadows and research centered on predator-prey relationships.”
New Mexico is home to more than 4,100 RMEF members and 13 chapters.
“The only reason this funding is available to be put back on the ground is because of the dedication of our volunteers and members,” said Kyle Weaver, RMEF president and CEO. “We salute and recognize them for their fundraising efforts.”
Since 1987, RMEF and its partners completed 431 conservation and hunting heritage outreach projects in New Mexico with a combined value of more than $44.9 million. These projects protected or enhanced 534,960 acres of habitat and opened or improved public access to 109,620 acres.
Below is a list of New Mexico’s 2020 projects, shown by county.
Catron County
- Remove encroaching pinyon-junior growth across 90 acres of historic grasslands in the Reserve Ranger District on the Gila National Forest as part of a multi-year effort to increase forage and reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire.
- Install a new wildlife water development along an elk migration corridor on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
