Local group gets money to protect our natural heritage

NEWS RELEASE

ENVIRONMENT CANADA

************************* Government of Canada investing in community action to preserve local habitat and species at risk in Ontario

SAULT STE. MARIE, ON (November 2) - Canada's Environment Minister, the Honourable Jim Prentice, today announced funding from the Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk.

$10,000 in federal funding will support environmental action focusing on conservation and protection of species at risk and their habitats, helping to preserve Canada's biodiversity.

"As part of the International Year of Biodiversity, this project will help to protect Canada's rich biodiversity for generations to come," said Minister Prentice. "Our Government is proud to support the NORDIK Institute through the Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk. Your actions, large or small, will help to protect the abundance and variety of life that is part of our natural heritage."

Habitat Stewardship Program funding will enable the NORDIK (Northern Ontario Research, Development, Ideas and Knowledge) Institute to work with project partners to rehabilitate power line corridors for species at risk.

The institute's Corridors for Life project is helping to protect and restore habitat and wildlife populations that live beneath Algoma Power and Great Lakes Power transmission lines.

The areas below these transmission lines are inhabited by several known species at risk.

"The Corridors for Life project is very important, as it encourages environmental stewardship particularly around wood turtles, monarch butterflies and other species at risk that inhabit the right-of way of power lines in the Algoma region," said Jude Ortiz, research coordinator with the NORDIK Institute. "This project is a foundational piece for new prescriptions for vegetation and species at risk management. It aims to improve the management practices of utility corridors that benefit wildlife, while meeting increasing energy needs with safe reliable power. NORDIK is pleased to manage this project."

The goal of the Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk is to contribute to the recovery and protection of species listed as endangered, threatened or of special concern under the Species at Risk Act.

Projects that will receive funding this year include stewardship actions to conserve habitat for plant species at risk, negotiations with landowners to develop voluntary Land Care Agreements, targeted educational outreach efforts to reduce the entanglement of species at risk in fishing gear, and the enhancement of water quality and aquatic habitat on private lands to benefit aquatic species at risk.

They will be undertaken with many partners such as agricultural producers, private landowners, and commercial fishers.

These projects will benefit many species at risk, including the north Atlantic right whale, Steller sea lion, swift fox, and small white leek.

The Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk is administered by Environment Canada and managed cooperatively with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Parks Canada Agency.

More information on the Species at Risk Act and the Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk can be found on the Internet by clicking here or here.

For more information and to view a backgrounder on this announcement, please visit the Environment Canada website.

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