Two projects in New York were awarded grants in Fiscal Year 2017, under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) Joint Venture Habitat Restoration and Protection Program. Ducks Unlimited was awarded $193,934 for their “Loop Road Wetland Restoration” project which will restore 140 acres of emergent wetland (125 acres) and buffering grasslands (15 acres) in New York’s Northern Montezuma Wildlife Management Area. Thousand Islands Land Trust was awarded $211,800 for their St. Lawrence River Valley Habitat Protection Project, which will permanently protect 236 acres of habitat in the St. Lawrence River Valley by fee acquisition (160 acres) on the Indian River and conservation easements on Picton Island (76 acres). The GLRI Joint Venture Habitat Restoration and Protection program is jointly administered by the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture and the Upper Mississippi and Great Lakes Region Joint Venture. An RFP is issued each spring, and projects are evaluated on the basis of the magnitude and duration of benefits to priority species/habitats, BCR 13 focus areas, whether they improve public access and/or connectivity to existing conservation lands, aspects of the partnership, and track record/readiness of applicant. Since 2010, ten GLRI projects have been funded in New York and Pennsylvania, totaling nearly $3 million in grant funds, and conserving nearly 2,000 acres of habitat in the Great Lakes watershed.
