§941c Identification, Review, and Implementation of Proposals and Regional Projects

Summary

The Director must promote and, if money is available, carry out fish and wildlife restoration ideas and regional projects in the Great Lakes Basin. Each year the Director will ask State Directors and Indian Tribes, working with others, to send in proposals. Proposals must follow the Director’s form and match eight guiding agreements and plans, including the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the 1954 Great Lakes Fisheries Convention, the 1980 Joint Strategic Plan (revised 1997) and its Fish Community Objectives, the 1990 Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act, the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration under Executive Order 13340, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative strategic action plan, and any relevant State wildlife action plan. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission keeps its role for controlling sea lampreys. A Review Committee under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will meet at least once a year to review proposals and recommend which should be funded. Each State Director and Tribal chair appoints two reps: one who sits on the Council of Lake Committees and one with wildlife management expertise. The Service is an observer. Members must recuse themselves from proposals they or their organizations submit. The Director will pick and, if Congress provides funds and cost-share rules are met, pay for selected projects, taking into account other laws. At least 25 percent of project costs (not counting sea lamprey barriers) must come from non-Federal sources in cash or in-kind. That non-Federal share can come from the two years before January 1 of the year the Director gets the application. The Director may count appraised land or conservation easements and costs to secure or restore them if they meet specific timing, ownership, appraisal (USPAP) and certification rules. Federal funds cannot be counted as non-Federal contributions. Indian tribes with alternate rules under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act are not affected.