This 5 year project will support the pennsylvania fish and boat commission nongame section NDS

The Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 5 awarded the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission $384,109 under the State Wildlife Grants formula program on July 1, 2026, for a five-year project through June 30, 2031, supporting conservation work on state and federally listed endangered, threatened, and candidate species and high-priority rare and data-deficient freshwater mussel species identified in the Pennsylvania Wildlife Action Plan.

The Commission's Nongame Section will conduct environmental reviews, update databases, fill data gaps through surveys and targeted research, provide technical assistance to staff and partners, and develop outreach materials. Work will be performed throughout Pennsylvania with coordination on multi-jurisdictional species involving neighboring states and federal agencies where species share jurisdiction or mutual interests.

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy serves as sub-recipient, providing expertise and capacity to support environmental impact reviews, collect and analyze data on freshwater mussel species, and offer management guidance related to endangered, threatened, and special concern species. The sub-award was dated May 1, 2026.

Under direction of the NDS chief the work will focus on state and federally listed endangered threatened and candidate species high priority rare and data deficient freshwater mussel species as identified in the pennsylvania wildlife action plan PA. Work will be conducted in pennsylvania but may require coordination with neighboring states and federal agencies on species with shared jurisdiction or mutual interests. Among the project tasks are reviewing and providing technical support and guidance for environmental reviews updating relevant databases filling data gaps through surveys and targeted research offering technical assistance to staff and partners and developing outreach materials. Benefitting from this work will be all pennsylvanians who care about the quality of the commonwealths fish and wildlife especially those at risk species, ES sgcn essential to the overall wellbeing of natural resources.