MRAP Landowner Enrollment Deadline is January 15
The deadline for landowner enrollment into the Missouri Outdoor Recreational Access Program (MRAP) is quickly approaching. Interested landowners must submit a Landowner Application form by this Friday, January 15th. The MRAP provides $15 – $25 per acre, per year, incentive payments and habitat improvement financial assistance to participating landowners in return for allowing public access to their land for recreational activities such as hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing. Public access on all MRAP properties is walk-in only. The standard landowner commitment period is three years, with annual renewal opportunities.
Participating landowners can choose the recreational activities allowed on their property by selecting one of the following MRAP access types: all access hunting and fishing, small game and turkey hunting, youth only hunting and fishing, archery hunting, fishing only, or wildlife viewing. All access hunting and f
South Dakota Wildlife Diversity Small Grant Proposals Being Accepted
PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks Wildlife Diversity Program is accepting proposals for the Wildlife Diversity Small Grants Program. This program provides funding for researchers, educators and naturalists to carry out projects focused on native wildlife. Funding for the 2021 Small Grants Program totals $20,000 for projects that are focused on monitoring and inventory of native wildlife species and their habitats.
Wildlife Diversity Small Grants have funded education, research, and monitoring projects focused on native wildlife and habitats since 1997. A wide range of projects has been completed to date, ranging from spider surveys of the Fort Pierre National Grasslands to assessing the risk of plague in black-footed ferrets.
If successful, the project will restore a genetically diverse and self-sustaining marten population to one of the species' native ranges in central Montana.
State Disappointed by Critical Seal Habitat Proposal
Juneau The State of Alaska strongly disagrees with the critical habitat designation for ringed and bearded seals proposed today by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). If adopted, the combined designations would encompass hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean habitat. The Arctic subspecies of ringed seal and the Beringia population of bearded seal were both listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 2012.
“It is difficult to believe that these seal species, which have healthy, robust populations, can be considered threatened with extinction and be the basis for such a massive federal action,” said Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang. “It’s very disappointing. This degree of federal overreach is outrageous.”