Dept. of Interior Announces Federal Grants

Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne announced March 31 in a news release that nearly $4.5 million in federal grants to support neotropical migratory bird conservation efforts in the United States, Canada, Mexico and man Latin America and Caribbean countries.

"What happens in Central and South America affects the birds that visit our backyards every spring and summer," Kempthorne said in the release. "These grants will support cooperative conservation projects and research to benefit our shared migratory bird resources throughout the hemisphere."

With the grants, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will provide 37 grants to conservation partnerships, which will be matched with more than $15 million for research, monitoring and management programs for migratory bird populations.


There are 341 species of Neotropical migratory birds that breed in the United States and Canada and winter in Latin America including species of plovers, terns, hawks, cranes, warblers and sparrows, according to the release. Many of those birds are in decline and some are protected as threatened or endangered species.