Nez Perce Tribe receives $1.9 million grant to restore creek near abandoned mine
The project at Leggett Creek will reduce excess sediment delivery into critical habitat for steelhead, spring Chinook and bull trout. (Bill Schaefer/Getty Images)
The Nez Perce Tribe is receiving a $1.9 million grant to restore impacted habitat from a historic hydraulic mine in Idaho.
The grant is funded through the America the Beautiful Challenge, which was launched by the Biden administration in 2021 as a partnership with the departments of the Interior, Agriculture and Defense, as well as Native Americans in Philanthropy and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. It set the country’s first-ever goal to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
The 61 grants announced Monday make up a total of $122.4 million to states, tribal nations and U.S. territories, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The grants support projects that conserve, restore and connect wildlife habitats and ecosystems while improving community resilience and access to nature.
The Nez Perce Tribe’s project will restore 22 acres of an abandoned hydraulic mine in Leggett Creek. The project aims to reduce excess sediment delivery into critical habitat for steelhead, Chinook salmon and bull trout while stabilizing eroding slopes by planting native evergreens and deciduous shrubs. It will also improve aquatic passage of over 23 miles of upstream spawning and rearing fish habitat, according to the National Wildlife and Fish Foundation.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said the America the Beautiful initiative has been “transformative.”
“By working together across the federal family, and through private-public partnerships, we have built an enduring path to support hundreds of locally led collaborative conservation projects across the country,” Haaland said in the release. “The America the Beautiful Challenge has advanced engagement with tribes, funding a record amount of tribally led efforts and elevating the use of Indigenous knowledge to benefit endangered species and treasured landscapes. These innovative investments will leave a lasting legacy on our nation’s lands and waters.”
About 42% of all the 2024 America the Beautiful grants will support projects implemented by Indigenous communities and organizations, according to the press release.