DCNR’s Wild Resource Conservation Program announced the award of almost $1.2 million to study and conserve Pennsylvania’s rich variety of native plants and animals.

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources administers the Wild Resource Conservation Program, which is providing the 31grants funded through the original Growing Greener program. WRCP works with the Game Commission and Fish and Boat Commission to operate the program.

“Some of the projects supported by these grants will increase our knowledge about the impacts of wind power on wildlife habitat; reintroduce rare mussels and restore habitat for spadefoot toads; help the nursery industry promote native plants and discourage invasives; and promote wildlife habitat development in schoolyards,” said DCNR Secretary Michael DiBerardinis. “It will also continue our inventories of the ecosystems that add value to the commonwealth’s landscape.”

Launched in 1983, WRCP primarily finances research and protection efforts for native, non-game and wild plant species. Funds from the program have supported the reintroduction of otters, osprey, peregrine falcons and fishers to Pennsylvania; identified new plant and animal species; located rare plant species within the state; researched habitat for migrating birds; and provided educational materials to schools.

In addition to Growing Greener funds, the WRCP relies on state income tax refund donations, license plate proceeds and donations to support its work to protect and identify species of special concern.

The full list of grants awarded follows:

Plant-Related Projects

· Carnegie Institute: $20,000 to provide data from herbarium specimens and discover and document new rare and endangered plant species in Pennsylvania.

· Cleveland Museum of Natural History: $23,250 to inventory rare plant species and communities in northwestern Pennsylvania and do outreach to private landowners and public land managers to help conserve plant species of special concern in the region.

· Morris Arboretum: $38,000 to characterize water quality factors associated with endangered and threatened aquatic plants of northeast Pennsylvania to better understand how to protect them.

· West Chester University: $18,800 for a demonstration effort to erect six deer enclosures on wooded, old-field and floodplain segments of the Gordon Natural Area in southeastern Pennsylvania, train volunteers to remove invasive plants, collect survey data and publish results.

· Western Pennsylvania Conservancy: $88,000 to collect basic data about species, habitat and abundance for the conservation of plant species in Pennsylvania.

Bird and Mammal-Related Projects

· Carnegie Institute: $50,000 for continued support for the Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas that assesses the abundances and habitat associations of Pennsylvania's breeding birds to enable the first-ever estimates of statewide bird densities and quantitative bird-habitat associations.

· Lafayette College: $20,000 to develop a Windows-based computer program to simulate raptor migration pathways through Pennsylvania based on terrain and weather conditions to help inform decision making on siting wind power installations.

· Mountain Watershed Association: $50,000 to capture, radio-tag, track and acoustical monitoring of eastern red (Lasiurus borealis) and hoary (Lasiurus cinereus) bats during the 2007 fall migration along the Allegheny Mountains of southwestern Pennsylvania to help guide siting decisions on wind power installations.

· Pennsylvania State University: $30,000 to examine the relationship between soil type, underlying geology, soil calcium levels, snail abundance, ovenbird abundance, territory size and egg shell thickness related to forest acid rain deposition.

· Pennsylvania Wildlife Federation: $25,000 to work with local stakeholders to develop and integrate a stewardship management plan for northeastern Pennsylvania to conserve important mammal habitat.

· Slippery Rock University: $30,000 to inventory Northern goshawk, provide vegetative trend analysis at the landscape, patch and nest site levels, and a volunteer workshop to educate the public about Pennsylvania's largest hawk species.

· University of Scranton: $20,000 to study the use of forested and upland shrub/scrub habitats by spring migrating landbirds in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Fish, Reptile, Amphibian and Aquatic Inverterbrae-Related Projects

· Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia: $24,000 for a set of studies on the current status and ecology of the bridle shiner, a rare fish currently listed as endangered in the state, in the Upper Delaware River.

· Berks County Conservancy: $25,000 to convert 16.3 acres of fields to native grassland and protect two vernal pools to help conserve and manage for a Pennsylvania endangered species, the spadefoot toad.

· California University of Pennsylvania: $10,000 to do a comprehensive survey of fish in the Tenmile Creek watershed to fill a data gap and complement ongoing river conservation planning efforts in southwestern Pennsylvania.

· Pennsylvania Parks & Forests Foundation: $30,000 to pair Fish and Boat habitat restoration technicians with state park Friends groups to enhance park lakes for amphibians, reptiles, fish and other species and develop volunteer efforts to improve habitat.

· Pennsylvania State University: $22,000 to examine the ecology of benthic fish assemblages in the Allegheny River through the use of stable isotope analysis to determine trophic interactions and food-web structure.

· Pennsylvania State University: $36,000 to conduct fish surveys on the large river habitats of the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, particularly navigation channels, and evaluate different survey methods to develop fish survey protocols.

· Western Pennsylvania Conservancy: $30,000 to develop a statewide classification system of seasonal pool ecosystems based on existing and new plant, animal and environmental survey data to help evaluate at-risk wetlands and help better inform management decisions.

· Western Pennsylvania Conservancy: $48,000 for a malacologist to work on special aquatic conservation projects across the state, including efforts to reintroduce the extirpated Eastern Pearlshell mussel into creeks in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Insect-Related Projects

· Carnegie Institute: $10,000 for an ongoing project to document the ground beetle fauna of Pennsylvania and create an interactive website.

· Carnegie Institute: $10,000 to continue building a database and Web site focused on the occurrence and distribution of the long-horned beetle.

· Carnegie Institute: $10,000 to study crane flies as indicators of aquatic and forest ecosystem health.

· East Stroudsburg University: $14,000 to survey treehopper species diversity and seasonal abundance on scrub oak in the Pocono till barrens as biological indicators of fragile scrub oak systems.

Multi-Purpose Projects

· Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay: $25,000 for an environmental management program to remove invasive species at Pin Hill Arboretum in Cumberland County.

· Clarion University: $55,000 to conduct a natural heritage inventory for Clarion County, one of the few counties lacking a completed or in-progress inventory. The project will benefit special concern species and unique habitats in Clarion County by identifying and mapping their occurrence, by assessing threats and by providing recommendations for conservation and management.

· Heritage Conservancy: $7,000 to work with Durham Township, Bucks County, to develop a model ordinance that encourages protection and enlargement of existing forest habitat and creation of new forest habitat in this rapidly developing area.

· Manada Conservancy: $20,000 to incorporate native plant species into the built environment in central Pennsylvania to counter loss of biodiversity due to development.

· Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts: $30,000 to support the Game Commission's program to develop and fund wildlife habitat enhancement projects on school and community grounds providing excellent opportunities for teaching students and residents about wildlife habitat and foster a conservation ethic.

· Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association: $16,500 to develop, print and distribute a "Guide to Gardening with nature" that will provide information to the public on gardening practices that will conserve water, reduce pesticide use and avoid the use of plants with invasive tendencies.

· Western Pennsylvania Conservancy: $345,000 to initiate new county inventories in Venango, Armstrong, Clarion and Cameron counties, and continue ongoing inventories in other western counties. County inventories collect and provide important ecological information concerning rare species, exemplary natural communities and intact landscapes.

For more information, visit the Wild Resource Conservation Program webpage.

12/8/2006