New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Fish & Wildlife will lead a multi-state partnership to help restore Eastern brook trout to waterways in parts of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, by administering a $3.5 million National Fish and Wildlife Foundation America the Beautiful Challenge grant.
The brook trout, or brookie, is the official state fish species for all three states. It was named the official state fish of New Jersey in 1992. New Jersey’s only native trout species, eastern brook trout are now only found in a fraction of the waters of their native range.
The grant is designed to enhance forested waterway habitats that support Eastern brook trout and other fish that depend on clear and cold streams and lakes.
Eastern brook trout, however, along with other fish species in these areas, are experiencing population declines due to degradation from habitat fragmentation, warming water temperatures, sedimentation and other threats.
The grant will fund cold-water conservation projects in priority watersheds over the next four years, including removing barriers such as dams and culverts, enhancing instream habitat, restoring floodplain habitat and mitigating upstream stressors that can lead to higher water temperature.
The grant announced by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is part of $122.5 million in grants awarded through the America’s Ecosystem Restoration Initiative: America the Beautiful Challenge.
ATBC grants support projects that conserve, restore and connect habitats for wildlife while improving community resilience and access to nature. The America the Beautiful Challenge is a partnership between the Department of the Interior (though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (through the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Forest Service), the U.S. Department of Defense, Native Americans in Philanthropy, and NFWF.
The newly funded program administered by NJDEP Fish & Wildlife is a collaboration with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Trout Unlimited, the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture, the Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the Wildlife Management Institute, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service . It is focused on safeguarding the biodiversity of the Appalachian Corridor highlands and streams within the three states.
For more information about the America the Beautiful Challenge Grant program, visit the NFWF webpage www.nfwf.org
sources: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Fish & Wildlife, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
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