Welcome to the latest installment of the Wednesday Wake-Up Call, a roundup of the most pressing conservation issues important to anglers. Working with our friends at Trout Unlimited, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, The Everglades Foundation, Captains for Clean Water, VoteWater.org, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, and Conservation Hawks (among others), we’ll make sure you’ve got the information you need to understand the issues and form solid opinions.
1. USFWS and NFWF announce $7.4 million in New Grants to Restore and Protect Chesapeake Bay Watershed Habitats
BALTIMORE, MD (November 13, 2023) – Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation announced 25 grants totaling $7.4 million for projects that support wildlife habitat, climate resilience, community conservation partnerships, and equitable access to nature in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
This year’s grants will advance the goals of the Chesapeake Watershed Investments in Landscape Defense (Chesapeake WILD) Program and leverage more than $12 million in grantee matching funds, for a total conservation impact of $19.4 million. The awards announced today will ultimately improve recreational access along more than 31 miles of river and trails, restore more than 32 riparian miles of forest habitat, improve passage along nearly 120 river miles for migratory fish species, and protect more than 4,700 acres of fish and wildlife habitat, including 2,000 acres of key wildlife corridors in high-elevation areas that will allow species to shift habitats in response to climate change . Many of these projects address conservation needs in vulnerable communities.
Click here for the full story at fws.gov
2. BTT: Bonefish Pre-Spawning Aggregation a Hopeful Sign of Recovery in the Florida Keys
Photo by: Ian Wilson-Navarro
In the wake of Florida’s bonefish population crash in the 1990s, many scientists believed that so many fish were lost that there was no base population left to effectively spawn. But an amazing discovery last spring of between 2,000 to 5,000 bonefish aggregating off the Upper Keys has raised hopes that the iconic species of the Keys can be brought back.
The discovery of an Upper Keys bonefish PSA has conservationists and future-minded anglers buzzing. “The fact that these fish went to 400 feet was astonishing to me,” says Captain Rick Ruoff, a BTT board member and guide who has fished the Florida Keys for more than 50 years. “That was a miraculous discovery. It was a spectacular effort by Ross Boucek.”
Now, everyone involved knows that the hard work lies ahead: Protecting the area that is so vital to future of bonefish in Florida.
Click here for the full story in Bonefish & Tarpon Journal
Further Reading:
Credit: Source link
