The goal of this project is to implement the national fish habitat plan in the southeast united states in the sarp work area

The Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 4 awarded a $409,944 Project Grant to the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies under the Fish and Wildlife Management Assistance program (CFDA 15.608). The grant will support implementation of the National Fish Habitat Plan in the Southeast United States through two subprojects from March 1, 2023 to February 28, 2027.

Subproject 1 will focus on enhancing riparian and streambank habitats in the Upper Chattahoochee and Lake Lanier watersheds through best management practices with agricultural landowners. This aims to improve physical habitat and water quality for shoal bass and other priority species. Subproject 2 will aid identification of priority conservation areas to guide resource allocation under the National Fish Habitat Partnership. It will also revise the Southeast Aquatic Habitat Plan and operational guidelines to align with the America's Conservation Enhancement Act passed in 2022. Both subprojects support strategic allocation of resources to ecologically and socially important areas to benefit habitats and dependent species in the Southeast region.

Scope of the project is high value aquatic habitat in the southeastern united states that is determined by partner agencies including USFWS, other federal agencies, state agencies, ngos and corporations. This project has two major sub projects. 1)enhancement of streambank and riparian habitats for native black bass protection in the upper chattahoochee and lake lanier watershed and 2) implementing the national fish habitat action plan in the southeast united states. Sub project 1 will focus on working with agricultural landowners in the uppder chattahoochee watershed in GA to implement bmps on agricultural lands. This will improve physical habitat and water quality for shoal bass and other priority species as well as improve water quality in lane lanier. Sub project 2 will support the identification of priority areas that will direct resource allocation supported by the national fish habitat partnership (nfhp) as well as the operational transitions to align with the recently passed america s conservation and enhancement (ACE) act including the revision of the southeast aquatic habitat plan and operational guidelines as many of these were published over 10 years ago. These activities are critical to aligning to the ACE act and remaining a designated fish habitat partnership as well as a committee of the southeastern association of fish and wildlife agencies (seafwa). These activities will allow sarp to strategically allocate resources to areas that are ecologically important as well as socially important with the necessary capacity to benefit habitats and the species that depend on them in subsequent years. This project will primarily focus on increasing the level of robustness and ability to track accomplishments of sarp and the work of our partners through supported collaborations. Three main areas of RE alignment and increased engagement will center around the designation of conservation opportunity areas, the revision and update of the southeast aquatic habitat plan, and the overall oversight and operations as the level of engagement has dropped significantly over the past two years. All of these activities describe are critical to strategically allocating resources to benefit species and their habitats.