Al Rizzo wins DNREC's 'Wetland Warrior 2009' award
MILTON, DEL. -
Al Rizzo, of Milton, DNREC's 2009
'Wetland Warrior' award recipient.
Rizzo was recognized July 30 at the Delaware State Fair. Credit: DNREC
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On July 30 at the Delaware State Fair, Gov. Jack Markell and DNREC Secretary Collin O’Mara honored the 2009 Wetland Warrior: Al Rizzo, of Milton, a soil scientist and Partners for Fish and Wildlife Coordinator for Delaware and Maryland with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesapeake Bay Field Office.
The award is presented annually to a citizen, organization, business or other group that has demonstrated exemplary efforts to benefit Delaware wetlands in the areas of outreach and education, monitoring and assessment, or restoration and protection.
Described as “a soil scientist of the highest caliber,” Rizzo has worked on projects and research with colleagues on the DNREC wetlands staff and Natural Resource Conservation Service for the past 15 years. During that time he is credited with advancing the state of wetland science and improving the future for Delaware wetlands and the services that they provide by restoring thousands of acres of degraded and former wetlands.
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Toe River dam being removed
By Nanci Bompey, Citizen-Times.com, July 29, 2009
Heavy Equipment Operators from Blue Ridge Grading and Trucking Inc. remove a dam on the North Toe River, credit: Citizen_times.com
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The removal of a decrepit dam this week from a section of the Toe River will open up more than 40 miles of water to fish, an endangered mussel and recreational boaters for the first time in more than nine decades.
The Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development Council is heading the $202,500 removal effort using funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the N.C. Division of Water Resources. Asheville-based Altamont Environmental Services drafted the removal plan, and Blue Ridge Grading and Trucking is removing the structure from the stream bed this week.
“It's opened up 44 miles of river, and we've returned it to the natural state,” said Cliff Vinson, coordinator of the council, a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that helps communities complete land conservation, water management, community development and land management projects. “It is significant to the river ecosystem.”
The 10-foot-high dam in Mitchell County was built in 1918 for power generation and provided electricity to the town of Spruce Pine and the Sparks Kaolin plant. It was abandoned by the late 1940s or early 1950s before being partially dynamited in 1960.
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Sacramento Valley Ranch Owner Wins Prestigious National Wetlands Award
Contact:Kevin Foerster or Greg Mensik, Willows, CA
Phone:
530-934-2801
Llano Seco Bur Clover Sandhill Cranes.
Credit:
Joe Siliveira
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Mr. Richard Thieriot, the principal owner of the Llano Seco Rancho, was recently selected by the Environmental Law Institute for their 2009 National Wetlands Award. Thieriot was selected in the Landowner Stewardship category, in recognition of the land protection and habitat restoration efforts that he has implemented at the Llano Seco Rancho, located west of Chico, California.
The last of the intact Mexican Land Grants in California, the 18,000 acre Llano Seco Rancho has been in Mr. Thieriot’s family since the 1850’s. The Ranch consists of a mosaic of wetlands, agricultural lands, riparian forest, oak woodlands, and native grasslands that support a uniquely rich and diverse array of wildlife. The property annually sustains peak populations of 500,000 ducks and 100,000 geese, along with a variety of Endangered Species and Species of Concern including Giant Garter Snakes, Greater Sandhill Cranes, Bald Eagles and Swainsons’ Hawks. Thieriot's stewardship has led to nearly 14,000 acres of the Ranch’s agricultural land and natural habitat being permanently protected by Conservation Easements held by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), The Nature Conservancy and the Northern California Regional Land Trust. An additional 2,634 acres and 1,633 acres are now owned and managed by the USFWS and the California Department of Fish and Game, respectively.
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Roanoke River dam removal will allow people and fish to go with the flow
A small Roanoke River dam near Wasena Park, long scorned by environmentalists and boaters, is being removed.
By Duffie Taylor | The Roanoke Times, 02/05/2009
If you've been over to Wasena Park in Southwest Roanoke lately, you may have seen the bulldozers, earthmovers, giant pipe sections and an arc-shaped, strange looking contraption inside the Roanoke River that blocks much of the water flow.
It's all part of a $900,000 project under way to remove a small dam in the river, just upstream from the park, that has frustrated boaters and environmentalists for years.
The Western Virginia Water Authority, along with the city of Roanoke, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are funding the dam's removal and a replacement of the old sewer line the dam encases.
Viewing the dam as an environmental hazard and a needless obstruction to river flow, federal and local agencies have sought its removal for more than 10 years, said Sarah Baumgardner, a spokeswoman for the water authority.
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Invasive Species Know No Boundaries - Do We?
Florida Invasive Species Partnership (FISP)
Credit: USFWS
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The mission of the Florida Invasive Species Partnership (FISP) is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of partnership approaches to preventing and controlling invasives species through increased communication, coordination and shared resources in order to protect wildlife habitat, working lands, natural communities and biodiversity in Florida.
If landowners and land managers in Florida wish to achieve long-term success, it is critical to:
- Reach out and collaborate with all stake holders, including private landowners.
- Focus on prevention as well as treatment.
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The Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program was established in 1987 with a core group of biologists and a small budget for on-the-ground wetland restoration projects on private lands. This successful, results-oriented program has garnered support through the years and has grown into a larger and more diversified habitat restoration program assisting thousands of private landowners across the Nation. Click here for a history of the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, on October 3, 2006 Congress unanimously approved and the President signed the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Act  .
At the heart of the Service's mission are the conservation and management of the Federal Trust Species: migratory birds; threatened and endangered species; inter-jurisdictional fish; certain marine mammals; and species of international concern. It is estimated that 73% of our Nation’s land is privately owned and that the majority of our fish and wildlife resources occur on those lands. Consequently, the conservation lands held by Federal and state agencies and other conservation groups cannot completely provide for fish and wildlife needs. Because the habitat needs of all Trust Species cannot be met solely on public lands, public funds are also expended on private lands to accomplish habitat improvements through cooperative conservation programs such as the Partners Program.
 The Partners Program provides technical and financial assistance to private landowners and Tribes who are willing to work with us and other partners on a voluntary basis to help meet the habitat needs of our Federal Trust Species.
The Partners Program can assist with projects in all habitat types which conserve or restore native vegetation, hydrology, and soils associated with imperiled ecosystems such as longleaf pine, bottomland hardwoods, tropical forests, native prairies, marshes, rivers and streams, or otherwise provide an important habitat requisite for a rare, declining or protected species.
Locally-based field biologists work one-on-one with private landowners and other partners to plan, implement, and monitor their projects. Partners Program field staff help landowners find other sources of funding and help them through the permitting process, as necessary. This level of personal attention and follow-through is a significant strength of the Program that has led to national recognition and wide support.
The Partners Program is guided by a national policy (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Manual, section 640 fw1) that identifies the following objectives:
- Promote and implement habitat improvement projects that benefit Federal Trust Species
- Provide conservation leadership and promote partnerships
- Encourage public understanding and participation
- Work with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to implement conservation programs
 In addition, the Partners Program policy has established priority ranking factors to help guide project selection. These priorities are stepped down to the state and local levels as field staff collaborate with our stakeholders to further refine habitat priorities and geographic focus areas.
National priority ranking factors for the Partners Program are used to assign funding priority status to proposed projects that meet these conditions:
- Improve habitat for Federal Trust Species, including migratory birds; threatened and endangered species; inter-jurisdictional fish; marine mammals; and, other declining species.
- Complement activities on National Wildlife Refuge System lands, or contribute to the resolution of problems on refuges that are caused by off-refuge practices.
- Address species and habitat priorities that have been identified through Service planning teams (with our partners), or in collaboration with state fish and wildlife agencies.
- Reduce habitat fragmentation or serve as buffers for other important Federal or state conservation lands.
- Result in self-sustaining systems that are not dependent on artificial structures.
If other considerations are generally equal, then priority is directed to those projects that link private lands to important Federal lands (such as Refuges), have cooperative agreements of longer duration, multiple partners, cost sharing, and the greatest cost effectiveness. The overall goal of Partners Program projects is to return a site to the ecological condition that likely existed prior to loss or degradation.
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