The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) has informed us of a statewide grant for projects that aim to "eradicate aquatic invasive species from the waters and wetlands of New York State." This money is to be made available during the 2005-6 Fiscal Year and must be applied for along with a plan, budget, and permit applications. The program will match one-third (33%) of any monies spent.

Deadline for application is February 28th, 2006. (We received notification just today.)

A summary of the program is available online here: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/habitat/erad.html

A detailed packet can be found here: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/habitat/eradgrantfinal.pdf - it contains application instructions, the scoring system used to prioritize grant applications, and project qualification requirements.

Grant Application PDF is here:
http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/habitat/eradgrantappform.pdf and the bundget application is here: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/habitat/eradgrantbudgetsum.pdf

Our lake has one invasive species that I know of: Curly-leaf pondweed - Potamogeton crispus. Any program designed to completely elimnate this nusiance weed would be eligible for the matching grant, but the lake community would have to come up with a plan to do it and then spend the other two-thirds (67%) of the budget in order to receive the matching funds.

Grants are for a minimum of $10,000 and a maximum of $100,000. The total grant appropration is $1,000,000.

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