Title
Grant Application - Catawba-Wateree Habitat Enhancement Program Fund
...Action
ACTION:
A) Approve submission of a grant application up to $22,000 from Catawba-Wateree Habitat Enhancement Program Grant.
B) If awarded, recognize, receive, and appropriate the award amount to the General Grants Fund (G001) for Park and Recreation for the duration of the grant to fund invasive management protocol and promote healthy habitat.
C) Adopt the required grant project ordinance for the grant in the General Grant Fund (G001)
Staff Contact: Chris Matthews, Division Director - Park and Recreation Department
Nick Walker, Director - Park and Recreation Department
Presentation: No
BACKGROUND/JUSTIFICATION:
The Habitat Enhancement Program (HEP) is a cooperative initiative by Duke Energy, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. The HEP was developed during the relicensing of the Catawba-Wateree Hydro Project to provide an effective means of allowing continued private recreational access while providing meaningful habitat creation, enhancement and protection activities for fish and wildlife adjacent to the Catawba-Wateree River and its reservoirs. As part of the habitat management strategy, a "Habitat Enhancement Fund" has been set up to provide for habitat enhancement activities. This fund is supported through fees charged to property owners who want to build private piers and residential marina owners wishing to build multiple slip piers in Catawba-Wateree Hydro Project reservoirs, and from contributions by Duke Energy. These funds are awarded to successful applicants through a competitive proposal process.
The department will be submitting one grant application. The application would use targeted grazing with goats at Buckeye Cove Nature Preserve to establish Mecklenburg County’s invasive management protocol and promote healthy habitat. Our objectives i...
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