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Inflation Reduction Act — Advancing Climate Resiliency and Conservation [1]

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Date: 2024-06 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was directly appropriated $250 million in new funding under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) for significant climate and conservation projects. These projects will help rebuild and restore units of the National Wildlife Refuge System and State Wildlife Management areas and provide capacity for activities related to recovery planning and implementation for threatened and endangered species.

The IRA, signed by President Biden on Aug. 16, 2022, supports the work of the Service and its conservation partners, and helps local, state, and Tribal communities tackle the climate crisis while advancing endangered species priorities and environmental justice.

Service Inflation Reduction Act Focus Areas

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provides critical funding that will allow the Service to increase the resiliency of habitats and infrastructure to help the national wildlife refuges withstand severe and unanticipated weather events. The funding also provides additional resources for addressing backlogs related to recovery planning and recovery needs for at-risk and listed species.

National Wildlife Refuge System Resiliency

The Service received $121.25 million, available until Sept. 30, 2026, to rebuild and restore units of the National Wildlife Refuge System and partnering State Wildlife Management Areas that have been affected by adverse weather events. With this portion of IRA funding, the Service will prioritize projects to promote coastal resilience and climate adaptation, address threats, and provide for additional data collection needed to support successful natural resource resilience. The Service will work with state partners to complete geographically diverse, large-scale projects that are mutually beneficial for these conservation areas, including projects that benefit historically underserved communities and Tribal interests.

Projects, location and total funding available through Fiscal Year 2026

Albemarle-Pamlico Sound restoration, North Carolina ($27.25M)

Working together on a landscape conservation approach for a climate resilient Northern Forest, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Wisconsin ($25M)

Prairie Pothole Region - landscape conservation and restoration, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota ($23M)

Lower Mississippi River Valley nature-based resiliency, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee ($20M)

Upper Mississippi and Illinois River nature-based resiliency and restoration, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin ($10M)

Bison management and grasslands habitat improvements across several Service refuges ($7.5M)

Nature-based solutions to support the endangered Yaqui fish species on San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona ($7M)

Acquisition of LiDAR Data over National Wildlife Refuge System lands in partnership with the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), Nationwide ($1M)

Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge and UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge Grasslands and Nature-based Resiliency, Montana ($500,000)

Endangered Species Act Recovery Planning

The Service received a $62.5 million investment to address Endangered Species Recovery Planning efforts that will be implemented over the next several years to benefit more than 300 species currently listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

This infusion of funding will allow the Service to hire additional biologists so we can ensure recovery plans are in place to provide the roadmaps for on-the-ground implementation actions that are necessary to recover species and remove them from the Endangered Species list. Biologists will initially focus efforts on recovery planning for the 32 threatened and endangered species (photo album of some of the 32) that have completed Species Status Assessments.

Endangered Species Act Recovery Implementation

With a $5.1 million investment from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Service is funding endangered species recovery implementation efforts for four focal species groups: Hawaiian and Pacific Island plants, pollinators (butterflies and moths), freshwater mussels, and southwest desert fish. This investment will allow the Service to achieve impactful conservation for listed species that have been historically underfunded and support recovery implementation actions for 36 projects that benefit more than 580 species listed under the Endangered Species Act (photo gallery).

The Service uses the best available science to develop recovery plans, which include scientific information and provide recovery criteria and implementation actions necessary to delist or downlist threatened or endangered species. The Service actively engages with Tribes, federal agencies, state and local governments, conservation organizations, communities and private citizens on recovery under the ESA to help inform ideas and innovative ways to conserve and restore imperiled species and carry out on-the-ground recovery implementation actions.

Projects, location and total funding

Project Location Funding Freshwater Mussels Texas Hornshell Habitat Modeling Validation Field Survey TX $25,000 Ouachita Rock Pocketbook Status Surveys Red River Tributaries TX, OK $25,000 Monitoring to Support Recovery of Listed Mussels and Associated Recovery Plans in the Midwest Region $50,000 Monitoring to Support Recovery of Listed Mussels and Associated Recovery Plans in the Northeast Region $50,000 Upper Green River Comprehensive Mussel Survey Targeted Emphasis for Ring Pink Mussel Propagation KY $50,000 Genoa National Fish Hatchery - New Mobile Aquatic Rearing System WI, MN $100,000 Conasauga River Mussel Propagation and Augmentation and Reintroduction GA, TN, AL $125,000 Northern Riffleshell and Clubshell Habitat Restoration and Reintroduce through Translocation or Artificial Propagation NY, PA $130,000 Northern Riffleshell and Clubshell Site-specific Protection and Management Program PA $150,000 Clinch River Shoal Mussel Propagation and Health Screening TN, VA $150,000 Genoa National Fish Hatchery - Infrastructure Expansion and System Construction WI, MN $150,000 Duck River Mussel Propagation Trailer Restoration Effort TN $210,000 Elk River Mussel Propagation and Augmentation and Reintroduction AL, TN $250,000 National Freshwater Mussel Propagation and Genetics OH, TN, Cumberland, Mobile, and Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basins $575,000 Butterflie s & Moths Lange’s and Mormon Metalmark Butterfly Conservation Genomics CA $100,000 Hermes Copper Butterfly, Quino Checkerspot Butterfly, and Laguna Mountains Skipper Rearing at San Diego Zoo CA $100,000 South Florida Pine Rocklands Habitat Restoration to Support Recovery FL $100,000 Sacramento Mountains Checkerspot Butterfly Projects NM $100,000 Dakota Skipper Patch-Burn-Graze Management in Prairie Coteau Region MN, SD $125,000 Upgrading Environmental Conditions for Reintroduction, Protocol Refinement, and Research Incorporation NH $150,000 Island Marble Butterfly Sustainable Captive Rearing Program WA $150,000 Listed Butterfly Species Pesticide Surveillance to Support Recovery and Inform Captive Rearing and Reintroductions MN, WI, MI, ND, SD and Manitoba, Canada $225,000 Southwest Desert Fish Warm Springs Water Quality Monitoring NV $15,000 Pedersen Stream Gage Removal NV $40,000 Meadow Valley Wash Habitat Assessment and Use NV $50,000 Define Habitat Use and Life History Study of Ash Meadows Speckled Dace NV $50,000 Southwestern Native Aquatic Resources and Recovery Center Propagation Facility Upgrades NM $100,000 Independence Valley Speckled Dace Genetic Monitoring NV $100,000 Big Bonito Creek Non-native Fish Barrier Construction AZ $110,000 Upper Virgin River Experimental Reintroduction UT $150,000 Aspen and Paradise Creeks Brown Trout Eradication for Apache Trout Recovery AZ $158,000 Bunkerville Irrigation System Feasibility Study NV $220,000 Hawaii & Pacific Island Plants Kaua'i, O'ahu, and Hawai'i Islands Rodent Control Effort Expansion HI $111,000 Hawaiʻi Mid-elevation Nursery Facilities Improvements and Planning HI $156,500 Wild and Reintroduced Endangered Plant Population Protection from Feral Ungulates HI $324,500 Serianthes nelsonii Recovery by Increasing Outplanting Success Guam, Northern Mariana Islands $408,000

The purpose of the ESA is to conserve endangered and threatened species and the ecosystems on which they depend. The ESA is extraordinarily effective at preventing species from going extinct and has inspired action to conserve at-risk species and their habitat before they need to be listed as threatened or endangered. More than 99 percent of all listed species are still with us today since the ESA was signed into law in 1973. As a result of the ESA, more than 100 species of plants and animals have been delisted based on recovery or downlisted from endangered to threatened.

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[1] Url: https://www.fws.gov/initiative/directors-priorities/inflation-reduction-act-advancing-climate-resiliency-and

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