The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources is seeking individuals and organizations interested in climate resiliency projects for a new grant opportunity.
The department announced last week that approximately $4.5 million in federal grant funding is available from the Regional Conservation Partnership Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The department said the projects could include planting native trees, watershed restoration and invasive plant removal. The grant will prioritize work in upper-level native forests that receive the most rainfall, lands with the highest potential for carbon sequestration, and sites that could lessen the impacts from climate change, reduce flooding and erosion onto coral reefs, and protect biological diversity.
In a statement, officials said the public-private program “enables private companies, landowners, local communities, and other non-government partners to keep lands resilient, water clean, and to promote economic growth in a variety of industries.”
“We are delighted to continue our successful partnership with DLNR,” stated J. B. Martin, acting director for USDA’s NRCS Pacific Islands Area. “With year-round warm climate and fertile soils, Hawaii is one of the most efficient places to plant trees to sequester carbon. These forests also buffer against the worsening threats of climate change by absorbing cloud moisture and replenishing our freshwater supplies. When invasive species degrade these forests, we also lose our irreplaceable plants and wildlife.”
Applications are due Aug. 5. For more information, click here.
State DLNR Chair Suzanne Case said the partnership “will result in landscape-scale improvements to our watershed forests.”
“We are looking forward to making new community partners who apply for native forest protection and restoration projects,” Case stated.
