MAUI PARROTBILL POPULATION TO BENEFIT FROM $907,000 GRANT

The Forestry and Wildlife Division of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources will receive grants totaling $907,153 for logistical and research support to establish a second population of the endangered Maui parrotbill.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel K. Inouye and Senator Daniel K. Akaka joined in making the funding announcement today.

The second Maui parrotbill population project will fund the collection of biological information, captive breeding and reintroduction efforts, and the habitat restoration for the Maui parrotbill, a bird listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.  This project will also benefit 10 other diminishing species in Hawaii.

The Division of Forestry and Wildlife was one of 12 state wildlife agencies nationwide chosen to help conserve and recover scarce fish and wildlife species through the State and Wildlife Grants Competitive Program.   The federal funding of $500,353 will be matched in non-federal funds of $406,800 provided by the State of Hawaii and its partners for projects helping vanishing fish, wildlife, and plant species.

“The funding process that I oversee in Washington, D.C., supports competitive grant programs for the preservation of ecological treasures across the United States,” said Chairman Inouye.  “To be successful requires hard work, and commitment to preserving America’s fragile ecologies.  I am pleased and proud that we in Hawaii have stood up to take ownership and leadership in the management of our own natural treasures.”

Senator Akaka, citing the U.S. State of the Birds report published in March added: “Hawaii has more bird species vulnerable to extinction than any other place in the United States.  This funding gives us a chance to save our native Maui parrotbill and other endangered bird species that exist nowhere else in the world.  I will continue to advocate for federal assistance because, as the Department of Interior has stated, losing our native birds would be a global tragedy,” said Akaka.

(Posted by Wendy OSHER © 2009; Information provided by the Office of Sen. Daniel Akaka; Image courtesy:  East Maui Watershed Project)