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Funding Announced For Prairie Pothole Region

March 17, 2023 Steve Schwaller

(Undated)– As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Interior Department has announced it is investing $120-million to restore and rebuild key segments of America’s wildlife management systems, especially in key areas of the Midwest. The money will be used to address species climate adaptation and invasive species threats, and provide additional data collection needed to support successful natural resource resilience. The money will be especially important in high-priority areas of the Midwest known as Prairie Potholes, which are shallow wetlands where wildlife have been threatened, according to Christy Plumer with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership…

“It is what we call the duck factory. A lot of waterfowl species spend really important components of their life within the Prairie Pothole region. It is a region that has a complicated set of both threats and opportunities within it.”

23-million dollars of the money has been earmarked for landscape conservation and restoration in parts of northwest Iowa, southwest Minnesota, Montana, and North and South Dakota. The investment comes at the same time the Endangered Species Act turns 50. Plumer said much of the 120-million-dollar investment will go right to work on the land of individuals who want to protect sensitive, low-lying wetlands on their property…

“… but still utilize the upland areas for growing crops, ranching and for other needs. So I think a program like this provides that blend of opportunities for willing landowners to do great conservation work while also thinking long term about the economic vitality of their farms and their ranches.”

Plumer says in addition to restoring habitat and increasing land resilience, the Prairie Potholes project will also secure environmental justice for historically disadvantaged communities.

(Courtesy Iowa News Service)