EPA Awards over $200k to North Dakota State University to Assess Prairie Pothole Region Wetlands Restoration

DENVER – The EPA has awarded $209,800 in wetlands grant funding to North Dakota State University to assess ecosystem health of the Prairie Pothole Region, supporting North Dakota’s Water Quality Monitoring Strategy for Surface Waters.

“This grant will support restoration of North Dakota’s unique wetlands, which are an important source of groundwater recharge,” said Darcy O’Connor, Assistant Regional Administrator of the Office of Water Protection.

The aim of the project is to assess success of prior wetlands restorations in North Dakota and to provide guidelines for restoration monitoring. This effort helps address the state’s goal of refining and applying wetland assessment methods to evaluate the effectiveness of wetland mitigation and restoration programs and projects. Biogeochemistry, vegetation and invertebrate populations will be studied as measures of the services these wetlands provide to the environment. These data will be key in cost effective management and protection of water and wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region.  This project will be done in close collaboration with Dr. David Mushet of the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Jamestown, North Dakota.

EPA has awarded over $2.5 million in wetlands grant funding for 11 projects across EPA’s mountains and plains region of the West (Region 8). Healthy wetlands perform important ecological functions, such as feeding downstream waters, trapping floodwaters, recharging groundwater supplies, removing pollution, and providing habitat for fish and wildlife.

Wetlands Program Development Grants assist state, tribal, local government agencies, and interstate/intertribal entities in building programs that protect, manage, and restore wetlands and aquatic resources. States, tribes, and local wetlands programs are encouraged to develop wetlands program plans, which help create a roadmap for building capacity and achieving long-term environmental goals.

For more program information visit: https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/wetland-program-development-grants