The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) today announced it is awarding more than $80 million from its Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund (GEBF) to 22 projects designed to benefit natural resources that were impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Eight of these new projects will be implemented either in or near National Wildlife Refuges managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Altogether, these projects will receive approximately $20 million from the GEBF in this round of funding.  The newly funded efforts will further the National Wildlife Refuge System’s mission to conserve, manage and restore the fish, wildlife, plant and habitat resources of the United States for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans. 

A new GEBF-supported project in Alabama targeting the acquisition of 647 acres of priority coastal habitat will complement the conservation benefits provided by the Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge. In Mississippi, a project focused on enhancing and restoring habitat on federal lands in coastal Mississippi is expected to lead to the restoration of more than 30,000 acres contained within Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Gulf Islands National Seashore and the De Soto National Forest.

In the state of Texas, two new projects being funded by the GEBF will complement existing conservation efforts within the nearby Aransas National Wildlife Refuge: one will conserve 600 acres and complete the contiguous protection of 16,100 acres of tidal marshes and flats, intermediate and brackish wetlands, wet prairies, and shorelines on San Antonio Bay; another will evaluate options for protecting and enhancing colonial waterbird rookery islands within the Matagorda Bay system. Three new projects will impact the Laguna Atascosa NWR: one will increase the size of the refuge with the acquisition of a 1,780-acres, and two will enhance 670 acres of wetlands and restore 36 acres of critical bird nesting islands within it. A sixth project in Texas will enhance and complete two critical colonial waterbird and coastal seabird nesting islands within the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge.

NFWF created the GEBF two and a half years ago as the vehicle to receive and administer funds resulting from the plea agreements reached by the U.S. Department of Justice and BP and Transocean relating to the 2010 oil spill. Provisions within the agreements direct a total of $2.544 billion to NFWF over a five-year period to be used to support projects that remedy harm to natural resources in the Gulf States. Today’s announcement represents the third obligation of funds available to support projects in the states along the Gulf of Mexico from the payments received thus far by the GEBF. To date, the fund has received $850 million dollars, and has obligated more than $480 million.

NFWF is a congressionally chartered non-profit corporation subject to oversight by Congress and a board of directors that includes the heads of the FWS and NOAA, as well as representatives from states, non-governmental organizations and industry. The Secretary of the Interior appoints the board.