Hawaii landowners obtain
wildlife grants

Millions are allotted nationwide to
help private entities with conservation
projects

Private landowners in Hawaii have been awarded federal grants totaling more than $1.1 million for wildlife conservation, for projects that protect native plants and animals, such as the nene, the state bird.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Private Stewardship Grants, which encourage private landowners and groups to practice conservation on their lands to help endangered and threatened species, awarded a total of $7 million nationally.

The money is part of $16 million in grants announced Thursday by Interior Secretary Gale Norton to protect wildlife in 42 states.

In Hawaii the money will be divided among 12 projects on Maui, Kauai, the Big Island and Oahu.

"These grants are important to the public-private partnerships our community needs to ensure the extension of conservation efforts throughout our Hawaii so we can sustain our unique environment for the next generation," U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, said in a statement. "Private landowners receiving these matching grants are involved in a wide range of worthy conservation projects that preserve and enhance native forests and protect native birds such as the nene (Hawaiian goose), elepaio, io and koloa."

The largest single grant, $336,000, will go to the National Tropical Botanical Garden for a 4.5-mile perimeter fence to protect 400 acres of Kauai's Limahuli Valley from feral pigs and goats and protect native species.

Also on Kauai, Grove Farm Co. will use an $18,810 grant for a locking gate at an interior cave entrance in the southern end of Makauwahi Sinkhole to protect the endangered Kauai cave wolf spider.

On the Big Island, the Hawaiian Silversword Foundation will receive more than $114,000 to build a 3-mile fence on 15,000 acres of forest and former ranch land to protect three native bird species, including the endangered Hawaiian hawk and Hawaiian hoary bat, from feral pigs, sheep and goats. Waialae Falls will use a $48,818 grant to restore rare and endangered species along a one-third-mile section of land along Honolii Stream in South Hilo by removing feral pigs and invasive trees and planting native plants.

A $49,800 grant to Ducks Unlimited will go toward enhancing and increasing the number of wetland habitats in the Ahualoa District of the Big Island to encourage breeding of the endangered Hawaiian duck, koloa, and the nene.

Another project aimed at protecting nene is a $61,200 grant to Pacific Plains to enhance 100 acres of pasture in the Big Island's Kohala district.

A $189,250 grant to Umikoa Ranch will restore koa, ohia and riparian habitats for threatened and endangered species in three areas on Kauai and the Big Island.

Maui projects include $26,000 to Ulupalakua Ranch to help with the restoration of tracts of forest within a 20-acre enclosure that will protect five endangered plant species. A $56,000 grant to Olino will go for a Wiliwili dry-land forest restoration project at the Puu Kali lava flows on the western slope of Haleakala, where six endangered native plant species will be planted on a 236-acre parcel.