Grants Available for Sportfish Habitat Restoration

Photo by Jerry Dilsaver

The FishAmerica Foundation has grant monies available for sportfish restoration projects, such as placing these reef balls on artificial reefs.

Alexandria, Virginia- The FishAmerica Foundation has up to $800,000 in grant monies available for marine and anadromous sportfish habitat restoration projects across the coastal United States and the Great Lakes basin.

These grants will be awarded to community-based, on-the-ground projects to restore marine, estuarine and riparian habitats, including salt marshes, seagrass beds, mangrove forests and freshwater habitats important to anadromous fish species such as salmon and striped bass that spawn in freshwater and migrate to the sea.

The FishAmerica Foundation will accept grant proposals through February 5, 2007. Grants of up to $50,000 each will be awarded in June of 2007. Eligible applicants include community-based nonprofit organizations, such as local sporting clubs and conservation associations, as well as state and local agencies. Applicants are encouraged to partner with NOAA staff in order to strengthen the development and implementation of sound restoration projects. The announcement and full grant package are available at www.fishamerica.org.

Since 1998, the FishAmerica and the NOAA Restoration Center have awarded more than $4.3 million in grants in 25 states, leveraged with an additional $5 million in funds matched by local communities for a total of $9.3 million in restored fisheries habitat that is critical for marine and anadromous sportfish.

Projects previously funded through the partnership include:

- A $30,000 grant to the Willapa Bay Regional Fisheries Enhancement Group in Washington to restore fish passage to more than four miles of stream and enhance spawning and rearing habitat in the south branch of Middle Stream of the Willapa Bay watershed.

- A $50,000 grant to the Galveston Bay Foundation in Texas to restore 100 acres of seagrass beds and protect an additional 200 acres of eroding salt marsh fisheries habitat in Snake Island Cove located in Galveston Bay.

- A $36,000 grant to the Lynnhaven River 2007 project in Virginia to restore oyster reef fish habitat and improve water quality at the mouth of the Lynnhaven River in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

- A $15,000 grant to American Rivers in Pennsylvania to restore fish passage to five miles of stream and enhance fish habitat along Wyomissing Creek in the Schuylkill River watershed.

- A $7,866 grant to the White River Partnership in Vermont to restore valuable spawning and rearing habitat along the White River in the Connecticut River watershed through riparian restoration, streambank stabilization and instream habitat installation.

The FishAmerica Foundation is the conservation and research foundation of the American Sportfishing Association. FishAmerica unites the sportfishing industry with conservation groups, government agencies, fishing tournaments, corporations and charitable foundations, investing in fisheries conservation and research across the country. FishAmerica provides matching grants that empower citizen conservationists in their own communities. Since 1983, FishAmerica has provided more than $9 million for more than 900 fisheries conservation and research projects nationwide. Visit www.fishamerica.org for more information.