Monday, October 3, 2011

$2.4 Million For Lake Erie GLRI Projects

U.S. EPA announced funding for three Toledo-area Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) projects totaling nearly $2.4 million. The projects will help to restore Lake Erie and put people back to work, using a conservation corps model to hire unemployed workers to improve habitat and clean up shoreline. The three Toledo-area projects were selected from 44 proposals totaling almost $25 million, which were submitted in response to a $6 million challenge that EPA issued in August to encourage Federal agencies to sign up unemployed workers to implement restoration projects in federally-protected areas, on tribal lands and in Areas of Concern (AOCs) in the Great Lakes Basin. To qualify for funding, each project is required to provide jobs for at least 20 unemployed people.

    Susan Hedman, EPA Great Lakes National Program Manager said, "The tremendous response to EPA's challenge underscores the large backlog of Great Lakes restoration projects that are ready to be implemented and the strong support that exists for using a conservation corps model to get the job done. Over the next week, EPA will be announcing a total of eight restoration projects worth $6.6 million as part of this challenge. Each project will produce immediate, direct ecological benefits and will help to put unemployed people back to work." The announcement in the Toledo area includes: $1 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to control invasive plants in the Lower Black River; another $811,252 to restore habitat in the Maumee River AOC; and $480,000 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for conservation, restoration and outreach at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge on the southwest shore of Lake Erie.
 
    Access a release from EPA Region 5 (click here, posted soon). Access more information on GLRI (click here).
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