Page 16 - September/October Outdoor Oklahoma Magazine
P. 16
DARRIN HILL/ODWC
Wildlife Biologist Marcus Thibodeau used Natural Resources Damage Assessment funding to conduct habitat-improving mastication (grinding)
of invasive eastern redcedars at Packsaddle Wildlife Management Area.
A NRDA WAY OF THINKING
FINES FOR POLLUTING CIRCLE BACK
TO FUND CONSERVATION PROJECTS
By using that limited pot for Editor’s Note: Most people have heard the old adage,
required matching funds to “You’ve got to have money to make money.” This is very
much the case with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife
secure additional federal
Conservation — at least when the agency wants to maximize
grant dollars, we can enlarge the amount of money it can use to fund its fish and wildlife
the total pot of money by conservation and habitat management activities. This is nor-
three, seven, sometimes nine mally how it works: The Department receives a smaller pot
times its original amount! of money every year from fishing and hunting license sales
and federal excise taxes. If we only used that limited pot of
money to manage wildlife and habitat, we would be greatly
limited in what we could get done. But by using that limit-
ed pot as required matching funds to secure various federal
grant dollars, we can enlarge the total pot of money by three,
seven, sometimes nine times our original matching amount!
This report is about how some innovative thinking in the
past few years at ODWC and the Oklahoma Secretary of
Energy and Environment’s Office has enabled ODWC to
fund projects that benefit wildlife and outdoor enthusi-
asts by tapping into state funds that normally would not
have been a traditional source of revenue.
14 OUTDOOR OKLAHOMA
