Paint Rock River, Caves, Species Protection

[L Roebuck]

Grant to help protect endangered species
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
By DAVID BREWER
Times Staff Writer [e-mail]

State will focus on Paint Rock River and nearby caves

PAINT ROCK - A federal grant of more than $850,000 will help protect endangered plant and animal species along the Paint Rock River.

The protection area includes the middle Tennessee River basin and its caves, said Scott Northcutt of Birmingham, director of protection for the Nature Conservancy's Alabama office.

"We have critters that are only found in certain caves of Jackson County," he said Tuesday. Among them is Fern Cave on Nat Mountain near Paint Rock, believed to be the country's largest habitat for endangered gray bats.

U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville, said Monday that the US Fish and Wildlife Service is giving a Landowner Incentive Program grant of $856,750 to help restore many types of aquatic and cave species.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, he said, will use the money in working with landowners to protect the rivers and streams in the basin.

The protection will include reinforcing stream banks with rocks or trees to prevent erosion and fencing streams to keep livestock from contaminating the water, both threats to endangered mussels and fish in the Paint Rock.

Gates will be installed at cave entrances to control the public's access and the impact on endangered species inside.

"Fern Cave is a very unique cave, and not just for its population of gray and Indiana bats," Northcutt said.

A satellite property of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in Decatur, the cave and 199 acres of surrounding woodland is also habitat to 200 species of birds, fish, reptiles, mammals and amphibians, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Northcutt said a team of experts from the conservancy, the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Fish and Wildlife Service will work with landowners to create a list of sites where the grant will be spent.

The team already has 12 to 15 sites in the Paint Rock River Watershed, he said.

Although the grant was approved for the middle Tennessee River basin, "we will focus on the Paint Rock Valley," Northcutt said.

The grant was written this way to help improve the chances of getting it approved, but the language also allows the team to go outside the watershed, he said.

Northcutt said the grant is to be spent over three years.

Article: www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1155115046288470.xml&coll=1

[Kelly]

This is really interesting. I wonder how, if at all, this will effect access to Fern Cave. Is Paint Rock River cave part of this? I think that cave is privately owned, but don't know. What are the other caves they are referring to??

[L Roebuck]

I have no clue what the effects will be concerning cave access but the article does state that cave gates will be placed to control the public's access.

I wonder if a Cave Management Plan has been established, if so, does it include caver access, etc?

[L Roebuck]

I found a bit more information in the following article which also gives a brief summary of all the projects.

State Wildlife Agencies Receive Grants to Work With Landowners to Conserve At-risk Species

The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced nearly $19 million in competitive funding for 37 States and Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands fish and wildlife agencies under the Bush Administration's innovative Landowner Incentive Program (LIP). The program supports cooperative efforts with private landowners interested in conserving natural habitat for species at risk, including Federally listed endangered or threatened species and proposed or candidate species.

"Conservation, especially conservation of imperiled species, must be a partnership between the American people and their government," said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. "By providing these grants, we empower citizens to restore habitat on their land and take other steps to protect and recover endangered, threatened and at-risk species."

LIP, funded through competitive grants with money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, establishes or supplements existing landowner incentive programs that provide technical or financial assistance to private landowners. All grants need to be matched by at least 25 percent from a non-Federal source.

Landowners interested in participating in LIP should contact their State fish and wildlife agency. For more information about the grant programs, please visit federalaid.fws.gov/lip/lip.html. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance reference number is 15.633.

Full Article: communitydispatch.com/artman/publish/article_5905.shtml

Here are the projects in TAG.

The Alabama Game and Fish Department will receive $856,750 and match $424,646 to help restore 115 species of special concern and 34 federally listed aquatic and cave species found in the Middle Tennessee River drainage. The specific project area includes Fern Cave which is the largest hibernaculum for endangered gray bats as well as thousands of other caves that harbor at least 24 cave dependent species found only in this project area. The Paint Rock River, where much of the aquatic restoration will occur, contains 98 species of freshwater fishes and 58 species of mussels. The project will work with private landowners to stabilize stream banks, restore bottomland hardwoods and riparian areas, exclude livestock from streams, construct fish passage, and install gates at the entrance to caves.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will receive more than $945,000 and match $358,461 to address the State's rich cave resources that house two federally listed species, 6 candidates for listing, and 29 species of special concern. Last year, researchers identified 9 cave species that were new to science. Aquatic resources to be addressed include 59 at risk species. Proposed cooperative actions with private landowners include livestock exclusion, shoreline restoration and protection, creation of riparian buffers and hardened stream access. Cave protection activities include cave entrance barriers, waste removal from sinkholes and vegetated buffer zones.