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Supervisor Bates Announces 2007 WRP Small Grant Award Recipients
 | | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22,2007 | Contact: Sergio Prince
714-834-3550 | Supervisor Bates Announces 2007 WRP Small Grant Award Recipients Santa Ana, CA – Orange County Supervisor Pat Bates joined representatives from the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project (WRP) at the May 22 Board of Supervisors meeting to announce the following 2007 recipients of WRP’s Small Grants Award Program in Orange County: Mission Viejo’s Carden Academy of Basic Education for their Pioneer Park Wetlands Restoration; and Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks for their Orange Coast River Park Native Plant Nursery. WRP was established in 1997 under the direction of then Governor Pete Wilson to increase, protect and enhance vital wetlands ecosystems. WRP is a partnership of 17 Federal and State Agencies – all with the goal of implementing a systematic, regional and ecosystem-based approach to wetland protection from Point Conception to the Mexican Border. WRP’s Small Grants Program provides funding for community-based restoration projects in coastal wetlands and watersheds throughout the region. Since 2001, Orange County has had fourteen Small Grant projects funded for a total of over $250,000. These two current projects total $60,000 and will work to restore habitat in a riparian wetland at the Carden School in Mission Viejo and to establish a native plant propagation nursery that will provide a native plant supply for the Orange Coast River Park ecosystem. “With help from the WRP Small Grants Program, successes like these will continue in our County, fostering an ever increasing awareness of, interest in, and protection of these incredible resources that are critical to the wild creatures that depend upon them and to our very health and well-being, “said Supervisor Bates. Bates, who is a co-chair of the WRP Orange County Task Force, also honored the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project with a resolution from the Board of Supervisors declaring the month of May, 2007, American Wetlands Month and recognizing the tenth anniversary of WRP’s exceptional work to protect wetlands and the overall environment of Orange County. Supervisor Bates was proud to present the resolution to Jean Watt, President of Friends of Habors, Beaches & Parks and fellow co-chair of WRP’s Orange County Task Force. “Wetlands have many economic values to our nation, our communities and to individuals,” said Bates. “I commend the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project and its Orange County stakeholders for their commitment to preserving, protecting and enhancing the coastal and riparian wetlands of Orange County.” # # #
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