Wetlands near Kennett, Dexter to benefit from federal grant

~ About five years have passed since the last funding of this kind of project.

Thirty-five acres of a dwindling wetland habitat will be restored in Southeast Missouri thanks to a recently awarded USDA grant.

The USDA Natural Resource and Conservation Service recently released $238,000 in funding to restore or enhance wetlands on 1,700 acres in Missouri.

Southeast Missouri's acreage ranks small on the list, but the Missouri Department of Conservation touts the $18,000, 35-acre project on private and MDC land as highly important.

The Southeast Missouri ground is in Dunklin and Stoddard counties near Kennett and Dexter. Canebrakes will be grown on the lands to promote habitat for threatened and endangered species, like the Bachman's warbler, a bird the Audubon Society says may now be extinct.

Other wildlife that use the habitat include bobwhite quail, swamp rabbits and several species of insects.

"These are a natural part of our ecosystem that existed 100 or 200 years ago," said Bill White, supervisor of the MDC's private land program. "Without canebrakes you don't have this species at all."

Other projects in Missouri include 478 acres on private land in north-central Missouri; 929 acres at Dana Bend Conservation Area in central Missouri; and 285 acres at Marion Bottom Conservation Area in central Missouri.

The projects are part of the USDA's Wetlands Reserve Program, which works with state government and private landowners to restore and enhance wetlands throughout the United States.

White said the funds in this grant were crucial to continue projects that had laid dormant from a lack of money and create new wetland areas.

"There is a pretty good-sized need for additional enhancements on these WRP acres, and this is the first time in a long time we've had money for that," said White.

About five years have passed since the last funding of this kind of project, White said. Since 1992 Missouri has restored more than 107,000 acres through the program.

The canebrakes in Southeast Missouri could take about five years to establish, White said.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182