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Mission RCD gets grant for arundo eradication

The half-cent TransNet sales tax for transportation includes an environmental mitigation program, and this year’s grant awards include $379,500 to the Mission Resource Conservation District for the district’s arundo eradication program.

The San Diego Association of Governments approved the environmental mitigation program grants, July 27, in an 18-0 vote; the representative of El Cajon was absent. A total of 19 projects received a combined $2,000,000 of grant funding.

The environmental mitigation program has two components: a threat reduction stewardship element and a species and habitat recovery portion. The arundo eradication program was the highest-ranked habitat recovery project and the only project in that category to receive the entire amount requested in the grant application. Arundo is an invasive species of cane that has naturalized throughout the California and many other regions.

SANDAG’s September 2017 board meeting approved the call for projects with $1,200,000 being available for species and habitat recovery and $800,000 earmarked for threat reduction stewardship projects. Species and habitat recovery awards are for three-year to five-year periods while threat reduction stewardship grants are considered gap funding for projects of up to 18 months. SANDAG received 18 species and habitat recovery proposals seeking a cumulative $5,040,515 and 21 threat reduction stewardship proposals with a total desired amount of $1,313,886 by the Jan. 12 deadline.

The threat reduction stewardship scoring criteria included addressing a high-priority species and its habitat, action to address an urgent need, identification and reporting of success criteria, likelihood of results and identification of needed activities and funding after the 18-month period. Species and habitat recovery proposals were scored using criteria of addressing a high-priority species and its habitat, the degree to which the proposed actions meet preservation objectives and benefit targeted species, the likelihood of long-term success of the management activities, identification and reporting of success criteria, synergy with other efforts and the use of matching funds.

Six species and habitat recovery proposals and 13 threat reduction stewardship grant applications were chosen for funding.

“They’re fairly evenly distributed throughout our region,” SANDAG regional environmental planner Sarah Pierce said.

The threat reduction stewardship grants had a cap of $80,000, although many applications requested less than that. Twelve of the 13 projects chosen were fully funded while the 14th-ranked project, which was promoted from the alternative list when the second-ranked project was withdrawn due to concerns about the location of the project’s proposed owl burrows, received partial funding.

The Mission Resource Conservation District will provide a $379,500 match which equals the TransNet grant. The RCD has undertaken efforts to remove the invasive arundo donax weed from the San Luis Rey and Santa Margarita watersheds and currently more than 98 percent of those watersheds are free of arundo. The grant along with the RCD match will allow the RCD to continue treating the watersheds with the objective of complete eradication of arundo in those areas.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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