Category Overview
The State Lands Restoration and Enhancement category provides funding to two state agencies to help repair damaged plant and animal habitat. These grants focus on resource preservation and protection of public lands. Projects in this category help bring important natural areas and resources back to their original functions by improving the self sustaining and ecological functionality of sites.
Project Highlights
Washtington State Parks will use this grant to restore 120 acres of grassland balds and prairie habitat in the north Puget Sound, at Moran State Park on Orcas Island and Jones Island Marine State Park. The native prairie communities at both parks are threatened by tree encroachment and invasive species. This project will remove encroaching trees, control other invasive plants, and restore threatened areas with seeding and planting of native prairie species. Successful restoration methods and approaches developed from similar habitats in the southern Puget Sound and Willamette Valley will be used. This project will build on, and benefit from, recent restoration activity conducted on a portion of Jones Island, as well as other restoration activities and partnerships within the north Puget Sound region. The primary habitat types to be restored are grassland balds and prairie.