SPRINGFIELD – Grants from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources that support efforts to conserve critical Canadian wetland and grassland breeding habitat for waterfowl that migrate to Illinois were announced by the agency today.
The agency awarded grants for waterfowl habitat restoration and preservation in Canadian breeding grounds. State Migratory Waterfowl Stamp Funds, generated when hunters purchase Illinois duck stamps, are set aside for this purpose.
Canadian prairies are the primary breeding ground of ducks that migrate to Illinois and throughout the 14 states of the Mississippi Flyway. Illinois law specifies the use and distribution of these funds to areas outside of Illinois that provide ducks to the Mississippi Flyway and for the implementation of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.
The Illinois State Migratory Waterfowl Committee met Feb. 10 to review three grant applications for funding through the Special Wildlife Funds Grant Program for 2022. A total of $500,000 was available for fiscal year 2022: $352,500 for Saskatchewan and $147,500 for Manitoba.
After reviewing the proposals and presentations by the applicants, the State Migratory Waterfowl Committee recommended the following funding.
$352,500 to Ducks Unlimited (the only applicant) for work in Saskatchewan
$75,000 to Delta Waterfowl for work in Manitoba
$72,500 to Ducks Unlimited for work in Manitoba
Potential applicants for these migratory waterfowl programs can find more information on the IDNR website at https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/grants/Pages/DuckStamp.aspx.
To view the Notice of Funding Opportunity for these programs or to browse all State of Illinois grant opportunities, see https://www2.illinois.gov/sites/GATA/Grants/SitePages/CSFA.aspx.
Tags:Fund[1], Grants[2], IDNR[3], Migratory[4], Stamp[5], Waterfowl[6]
