Wilderness Stewardship Challenge Grants Awarded

From the Montana Daily Inter Lake:

Two area organizations were among 21 nonprofit groups nationwide that received Wilderness Stewardship Challenge grants from the National Forest Foundation. More than $400,000 was awarded to support wilderness conservation.

The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation won for its “Pain in the Grass” proposal for noxious weed eradication in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

The Swan Ecosystem Center will receive a grant for its proposed Mission Mountain Wilderness Stewardship Partnership for the Mission Mountains Wilderness near Condon.

In 2004, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the U.S. Forest Service issued a Stewardship Challenge calling for all wilderness areas in the National Forest System to meet baseline management standards by 2014 — the 50th anniversary of the act. To meet this standard, wilderness areas are measured on 10 stewardship elements and must achieve 60 percent of the total available points.

Since 2004, the program has provided 1:1 matching grants to nonprofit partners for the implementation of on-the-ground conservation projects that directly benefit National Forest Wilderness Areas. This year, additional funding was available specifically for reduced-match grants to organizations with small operating budgets, providing the opportunity to support a greater diversity of projects and groups.

“Since the inception of the challenge, the National Forest Foundation has invested more than $2.5 million in the stewardship of National Forest Wilderness Areas,” says Bill Possiel, president of the National Forest Foundation. “Expanding the program to create opportunities for smaller organizations greatly increases the value of our investment by boosting the presence and capacity of those organizations within their communities and contributes to the advancement of the stewardship of designated wilderness areas.”

The many projects funded this year by the Wilderness Stewardship Challenge program will achieve invasive weed inventory and eradication, utilize volunteer wilderness rangers to inventory and rehabilitate impacted campsites, and reconstruct high-use trails.

For more information on the National Forest Foundation grants, visit: http://www.nationalforests.org/news/article/131/nff-announces-new-wilderness-grants