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
The Washington Department of Natural Resources and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will use this grant to restore 800 acres of outwash prairie, grassland bald, and oak woodland habitat at five of the most significant conservation sites in the South Puget Sound region: Scatter Creek, Mima Mounds, West Rocky Prairie, Rocky Prairie, and Bald Hill. These sites harbor some of the last remaining populations of federal and state listed threatened and endangered plants and animals and WDFW’s Species of Greatest Conservation in the region. This project will acquire native seeds and transplants, prepare restoration areas for seeding through prescribed burning and controlling invasive plants, and conduct seeding and replanting in these areas. Key invasive species will be targeted for control on additional portions of the sites. Other actions include Oregon spotted frog habitat enhancement at West Rocky Prairie and oak woodland treatments at four of the sites. The primary habitats restored through this grant are prairie, grassland, and oak woodland.