GRANTS and PARTNERSHIPS

Endangered Species Conservation Grants

Welcome to the Southeast Region's Grants and Partnerships web site! The mission of the Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others, to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. By doing so, we are helping to promote a healthy environment for people to enjoy. We are the only agency of the U. S. Government with that primary mission.

The Service's major responsibilities are for migratory birds, endangered species, certain marine mammals, and freshwater and anadromous fish. We also administer the National Wildlife Refuge System and National Fish Hatcheries. One of the major ways that the Service carries out its responsibilities is by working in partnership with others who are interested in caring for and restoring habitat necessary for species to survive. The Service offers a suite of financial assistance opportunities, and we invite you to explore this site to assess opportunities for partnership.

The Southeast Region is extremely valuable from a natural resource standpoint. It supports the world's greatest diversity of temperate freshwater fishes. The Southeast supports 35% of all of the wetlands found in the lower 48 states, including the Florida Everglades which represent the second largest wetland in the world. One of the largest blackwater lakes in North America is found in the Southeast at Lake Okefenokee. Many of the freshwater rivers and streams in the Southeast are habitat for Federally-listed endangered and threatened species.

The Service is working at the watershed level, and all of the Service's field units (National Wildlife Refuges, National Fish Hatcheries, Ecological Services Offices, Law Enforcement and Fisheries Resources Offices) are working collaboratively as well as with partners to combine their efforts to address high priority conservation needs. Special emphasis is being placed on reaching out to partners to work together to address landscape level priorities, such as the loss of the longleaf pine ecosystem in the Southeast, the restoration of the Lower Mississippi River bottomland hardwood wetlands, restoration of the Everglades, and conservation of freshwater streams and rivers in the Southeast.

Fish and wildlife know no borders. More importantly, 70% of the Nation's available fish and wildlife habitat is on privately-owned lands. Working with others can lead to improved habitat for fish and wildlife as well as improvements in efficiency and effectiveness of operations.

This site has been developed to provide information and assistance to existing partners, to help build new partnerships, and to provide information about available natural resource conservation grants. All of the Service's grant opportunities are advertised on the Government's grant website, First Gov at http://www.grants.gov More details about the grant programs are provided at the Service's national grants website at http://www.fws.gov/grants.

Many of the files on these pages require the use of Adobe. You may download it to your computer at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html