2011 Power of Flight Grants

The Power of Flight program is the largest public/private funding effort for bird conservation in the South. Five new grants in the Power of Flight program were awarded in 2011 to:

• The Longleaf Alliance Inc. - to build on the success of the 15-year Gulf Coastal Plain Ecosystem Partnership (GCPEP) by increasing management and restoration of critical bird habitat across the GCPEP landscape. GCPEP will conduct prescribed burning, mechanical treatment, invasive species control and ecological monitoring on more than 45,000 acres of public and private lands benefitting rare bird species. Additional prescribed fire experts will be trained through 10 National Wildfire Coordinating Group-level fire training classes.
• National Wild Turkey Federation - to expand the red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) population on the Oakmulgee Ranger District of the Talladega National Forest in Alabama. This project will restore 1,200 acres of underutilized habitat in the South Sandy Watershed into good quality foraging habitat. This project's focus area currently supports only one of the 49 active RCW clusters in the South Sandy Watershed (total population on Oakmulgee is 100). It is anticipated that this project will provide habitat to support four to five RCW clusters in the area.
• Operation Migration USA Inc. - to utilize ultralight aircraft to guide young whooping cranes along a seven-state, 1,285-mile migration route each fall from Wisconsin to Florida. Ten generations of whooping cranes have been successfully taught this migratory route. The current population consists of 105 cranes, 44 of which were reintroduced to the population through a previous Power of Flight grant. This project will continue assisted migrations for at least the next three years from a new base of operations at the White River Marsh State Wildlife Area in Green Lake County, Wis. The goal is to add 45 new birds to create a self-sustaining population of whooping cranes.
• University of Georgia - to use State Botanical Garden-managed areas as demonstration sites for the public, promoting the conservation of high priority bird species of the southern United States. This project will remove invasive Chinese privet from 15 acres of highly degraded floodplain forest and establish canebrakes; develop Piedmont prairie habitat in a power line right-of-way using prescribed fire and horticultural enrichment with native grasses and forbs; implement several programmatic goals of Georgia's State Wildlife Action Plan that promote conservation of high quality bird habitat; and conduct public outreach to create awareness of techniques for the protection and recovery of priority bird species.
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - to complement a larger effort to repair 18 water control structures within a nine-mile diversion canal, with the goal of ensuring freshwater delivery to Savannah National Wildlife Refuge wetlands. The project area consists of 338 acres managed for waterfowl. Once restoration is complete, the Refuge will be able to return the wetlands to a management rotation. As the Refuge gains a greater degree of water control, restoration projects like this will enable the Refuge to continue to provide quality habitat for wetland-dependent wildlife.

And continuing support is being provided under a Power of Flight grant to Milliken Forestry Company to accelerate translocation efforts for the red-cockaded woodpecker. This is a continuation of a grant formerly made to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2008 for activities across the Southeast.

In addition, two grants supported by Power of Flight under the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Recovered Oil Fund for Wildlife program are:

• Conservian - to establish strong beach management and protection practices to restore beach-nesting bird populations and coastal habitats. This project will reduce coastal wildlife and habitat injuries by employing a combination of proven protective measures, guidance and education which will provide a demonstrable increase in coastal bird populations. Targeted species include Wilson's plover; snowy plover; American oystercatcher; black skimmer; and least, gull-billed, sandwich and royal terns.
• Conservian - to develop a comprehensive manual for management and conservation of beach-nesting shorebirds and seabirds along the Gulf Coast.