Department Of Interior

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
Contact:Diana Weaver
For Immediate Release: May 27, 2003
413-253-8329


INTERIOR SECRETARY NORTON TO ANNOUNCE $82,000 GRANT TO PROTECT LONG ISLAND SHOREBIRD -- PART OF NEW NATIONAL PROGRAM TO CONSERVE THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES

MEDIA ADVISORY

(SOUTHAMPTON, NY) -- Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton will announce Wednesday the first grants under President Bush's new Private Stewardship Grant program - which he originally proposed when he was Texas governor - including an $82,500 grant to help the Nature Conservancy and five Long Island towns protect the beach habitat of the threatened piping plover.
"This is the realization of a proposal President Bush made in June 2000, to empower local communities and private landowners to protect and recover imperiled species," Norton said.
The Interior Department's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is awarding more than $9.4 million through the Private Stewardship Grants Program to fund 113 conservation projects to protect federally listed endangered, threatened and other at-risk species on private lands at locations throughout the country.
Norton will present the $82,500 grant to he Nature Conservancy's Long Island Chapter and the towns of East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southampton and Southold. The grant will help fund their efforts to protect nesting areas and other fragile beach habitats for the piping plover and other species native to the beach ecosystems.

Who: Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior
Rep. Tim Bishop

What: Announcement of first grants under President Bush's new Private Stewardship Grant program.

When: Wednesday, May 28, 2003
9:30 a.m. Meeting with award recipients
10:00 a.m. Walking tour with media to project sites
10:15 a.m. Remarks by Norton and award recipients
10:45 a.m. Further media availability/photo op


Where: Quantuck Beach Club, Southampton, N.Y. (starting point for walking tour). Take Sunrise Highway (Route 37) to Exit 63 (South). Continue south past Gabreski Airport, crossing over Montauk Highway. At the five corners intersection (movie theater on your left), continue south through the intersection onto Potunk Lane. Make a left onto Main Street, Westhampton Beach. Continue through the village. Make a right onto Beach Lane. Continue across the bridge until you reach Dune Road. Make a left onto Dune Road and continue approximately 1/4 mile to the Quantuck Beach Club.

-DOI-


Selected Press Releases