Migratory birds throughout the Western Hemisphere will benefit from $4 million in grants for 32 collaborative conservation projects across the Americas, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today. The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act grants will leverage the Service’s investment with $16.9 million in additional partner funds—a more than four-to-one match. The projects will conserve migratory bird habitat, engage local communities in bird habitat protection, and strengthen international relations, while raising awareness of the importance of bird conservation. “One hundred years ago, we signed the first Migratory Bird Treaty with Canada, recognizing the need to conserve shared species across
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The Tennessee River Gorge Trust couldn’t do any of this work without the vital support we receive from our community partners and sponsors. Over the next few months, we’ll introduce you to some of our partners. They support us in a myriad of ways, from helping us throw spectacular events so that we can raise awareness and funds for our mission to funding new trails in the Gorge. This month we spoke with Ryan Rogers, communications specialist with Colonial Pipeline Company, one of our supporters. A Shared Mission To understand Colonial Pipeline’s mission, consider the analogy Rogers offered: Colonial Pipeline is the
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The animated map shows the Wood Thrush’s predicted distribution and relative abundance across all 52 weeks of the year.The animation illustrates the migratory movements of the species as its populations travel across North America. The brighter the color, the higher the expected count of the species on a standardized eBird count. The data used to generate this animation were produced using a statistical model to predict the relative abundance of the population at specific times and locations by relating observations of birds from eBird to local environmental features derived from NASA remote sensing data. Please note that because these maps
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The Appalachian LCC (AppLCC) has made new climate change vulnerability assessments for 41 species and three habitats in the Appalachians available online, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. Assembled by NatureServe working under an AppLCC grant, the detailed dataset can be filtered by state, region, taxa, and ecological system. Researchers first convened a panel of climate experts to compile and review existing vulnerability assessments, compare strengths and weaknesses of methodologies used, and recommend a vulnerability assessment method for adoption. The recommended method was deployed to generate vulnerability assessments for a suite of key species and habitats selected in consultation with partners
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The Cerulean Warbler Appalachian Forestland Enhancement project is taking flight in West Virginia thanks to funding awarded through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has partnered with the Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture (AMJV), the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), and the West Virginia Division of Forestry (DOF) on the project There are two components to the Cerulean Warbler Appalachian Forestland Enhancement project – to enhance 4,000 acres of forest habitat and restore 75 acres of mineland on private lands over the next five years. The larger is a forest management component covering parts of
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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the availability of up to $260 million for partner proposals to improve the nation’s water quality, combat drought, enhance soil health, support wildlife habitat and protect agricultural viability. The funding is being made available through USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) innovative Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) and applicants must be able to match the federal award with private or local funds. Created by the 2014 Farm Bill, RCPP investments of nearly $600 million have already driven 199 partner-led projects. The program leverages local leadership to establish partnerships that can include private companies, local
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