 |
October 13, 1999
Migratory bird studies boosted by grant
Press Contact:
Heidi Hopkins, Eastern Sierra Policy Director
Mono Lake Committee
(760) 647-6595
For Immediate Release
The integration of migratory bird studies with restoration activities in the Mono Basin received international support today when the Mono Lake Committee was awarded a grant from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The $19,000 grant was one of 25 announced today by the CEC, a Montreal-based organization created by Canada, the U.S., and Mexico to address environmental issues in North America from a continental perpsective.
The CEC funds will be used in the Mono Basin to support community-assisted research and monitoring of specific migratory bird species in the 2000 field season and to make the information available to all parties engaged in restoration. Funds also will be used to seek Important Bird Area status for the Mono Basin. Project collaborators include the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, which is heading up the Eastern Sierra Riparian Songbird Project (funded by the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation) and partnering with other researchers on the California gull studies; Dr. David Winkler, of Cornell University; Dr. Dave Herbst, of the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory; the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service.
"The ultimate goal is to use specific, collaborative fieldwork in 2000 to generate a multi-agency/community-supported vision and action plan for an ecosystem approach to restoration and monitoring at Mono Lake," said Geoff McQuilkin, assistant executive director for the Mono Lake Committee. The community-assisted field work in 2000 will focus on riparian songbirds breeding along Mono Basin streams and on Mono Lake’s nesting gulls.
The grants announced by the CEC today come from its North American Fund for Environmental Cooperation (NAFEC) and amount to roughly $1 million shared among 25 community-based environmental projects across the continent. Chosen from over 300 applicants, the projects were selected on the basis of their potential to reinforce the four program priorities of the CEC – environment, economy and trade; conservation of biodiversity; pollutants and health; and law and policy."These grassroots projects are crucial," says the CEC’s executive director, Janine Ferretti. "They do real things on the ground that bring local people into the discussion. We’ve got to be able to make these links between policy and the people affected," says Ferretti.
For more information on the 25 projects receiving CEC grants please see www.cec.org.
# # #