KDWPT

WASHINGTON – U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced $162,127 in funding will go to Kansas Native tribes and more than $720,000 to Kansas state wildlife agencies through the Tribal Wildlife Grant (TWG) program and the State Wildlife Grants (SWG) program. The funds, which are provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, give support for a diverse array of species and habitats across the country.

Through the TWG program, the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska will receive $162,127 for a fish community assessment in streams with a focus on rare species.

“The work of Kansas Native American tribes and state wildlife agencies is absolutely critical to wildlife conservation in the United States,” said Deputy Secretary Bernhardt. “We’re thrilled to be able to collaborate with them, their local communities, and other partners to ensure important fish, wildlife, habitat and cultural needs are met.”

The $724,487 in funding through the SWG program, which is part of $48 million being distributed nationwide, will support imperiled species and habitats listed in approved state wildlife action plans. All 50 state and U.S. territorial wildlife agencies have these plans, which proactively protect species in greatest conservation need. Projects funded through SWG involve research, monitoring, wildlife surveys, species and habitat management and other activities.

Through the TWG program, more than $4 million funds were given to tribes in 14 states to support fish and wildlife conservation and key partnerships. The awards will benefit 25 projects that encompass a wide range of wildlife and habitats, including species of Native American cultural or traditional importance and species that are not hunted or fished.

SWG funds are administered by the Service’s Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration (WSFR) program and are allocated to states and territories according to a congressionally-mandated formula based on population and geographic area. Grant funds must be used to address conservation needs, such as research, wildlife surveys, species and habitat management, and monitoring identified within state wildlife action plans. The funds may also be used to update, revise or modify a state’s plan.

TWG funds are provided exclusively to fund wildlife conservation by federally-recognized Native American tribal governments, and are made possible under the Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2002 through the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants Program. Proposals for the 2018 grant cycle are due Sept. 1, 2017.

For additional information about Native American conservation projects and the Tribal Wildlife Grants application process, visit https://www.fws.gov/nativeamerican/grants.html or http://www.grants.gov/.

DCF

TOPEKA– Four new Kansas-inspired programs will be launched in the Mississippi Delta this fall. Four schools in the Coahoma County School District—Friars Point, Jonestown, Lyon and Sherard—will begin a partnership with the Kansas Reading Roadmap to further increase early reading proficiency across the district.

The Kansas Reading Roadmap program was commissioned by Governor Sam Brownback in 2013, and is funded by the Kansas Department for Children and Families, through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds, to help increase reading proficiency among children. This poverty-prevention measure has been successful in Kansas, and now the Coahoma County District will seek to replicate the success of Kansas schools from the Kansas Reading Roadmap in Mississippi.

The Kansas Reading Roadmap model aligns afterschool and family engagement with school-day instruction and intervention to build upon school efforts to promote early reading proficiency. Coahoma County schools use a school-wide strategy of assessments, instruction and intervention to teach children to read.

“The Reading Roadmap seeks to innovate how schools use out-of-school programs to drive greater achievement in early reading proficiency,” said Andrew Hysell, Director the Reading Roadmap. “Through science-based early reading strategies aligned with school interventions and data, afterschool learning can help schools better achieve third grade reading goals.”

At the heart of the Kansas Reading Roadmap is its partnership with the Kansas State Department of Education’s Technical Assistance Systems Network (TASN). TASN supports Kansas schools to implement the Kansas Multi-Tier System of Supports (MTSS). Kansas MTSS helps schools organize data and instruction to provide individualized instruction and intervention for all children. The Reading Roadmap aligns out-of-school programs with the Kansas MTSS system.

Currently, the Reading Roadmap partners with more than 60 schools and Boys & Girls Clubs in Kansas to expand science-based reading strategies to all students in out-of-school environments, including afterschool, summer and family engagement programming. The mission of the Reading Roadmap is to integrate and align out-of-school programs with data and instruction to enhance school efforts promoting early reading proficiency.

According to an independent, longitudinal evaluation of 30 sites, children attending Reading Roadmap afterschool programs experienced 57 percent greater growth than their peers—as measured by school assessments.

“Kansas Reading Roadmap has been very successful in the State of Kansas, so I am thrilled that Mississippi is adopting similar programs,” said Secretary Phyllis Gilmore. “Early reading proficiency is important because it arms children with the tools they need to have a successful and bright future.”

Third grade reading is a critical point in a child’s life when they transition from learning to read to reading to learn. Early reading proficiency is correlated with school and lifetime success. Research consistently shows that children who are not proficient readers by the fourth grade are four times less likely to graduate on time from high school.

For more information about the Kansas Reading Roadmap, contact Kimberly Muff at 785-243-4860. Learn more about the program at www.readingroadmap.org.

KDWPT

PRATT – Two Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) publications hunters anxiously await are available now: The 2017 Kansas Hunting and Furharvesting Regulations Summary and the 2017 Kansas Fall Hunting Atlas.

Both publications are available online at www.ksoutdoors.com and both are being shipped to hundreds of license vendors and KDWPT offices around the state this week. Copies can be mailed by calling (620) 672-5911.

The hunting summary includes regulations such as methods of take, season dates, bag and possession limits, as well as a listing of public wildlife areas. One section features color photographs and range maps for popular game species. There is also a list of phone numbers for game wardens by the counties they patrol.

The 2017 Kansas Fall Hunting Atlas includes maps showing all Walk-in Hunting Access (WIHA) areas, as well as state and federal public wildlife areas. WIHA is private land leased by KDWPT and opened to public hunting. More than 1 million acres of WIHA lands are mapped in the atlas, more than tripling the amount of public access open to hunters.

The atlas is available online, and soon Garmin GPS and Google Earth files will be available to download. All WIHA tracts are marked with signs showing the lease dates, which start either Sept. 1 or Nov. 1 and end either Jan. 31 or March 31.

Pick up your copy of the regulations summary and hunting atlas wherever licenses are sold. No hunter should be without them.

EPA

LENEXA–The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced research projects addressing priority environmental and human health problems in 14 states through partnerships between EPA’s research office, regional offices, and states.

“EPA encourages the use of innovative scientific approaches to help solve important environmental problems,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “By working with our state partners, we can expand and diversify EPA’s work, engage the public, and foster creative solutions to these challenges.”

The research announced is designed to address pressing environmental issues faced by the states. EPA is uniquely equipped to provide scientific expertise to help tackle these problems. The selected projects focus on non-point source nitrogen pollution, volatile organic compound emission detection, harmful algal blooms, roadway air pollution near schools, and other environmental and human health issues across the country. The projects will employ innovative approaches including citizen science, crowdsourcing, a challenge competition, and advanced monitoring technologies.

One of these projects is “Use of Next-Generation Molecular Tools for Harmful Algal Blooms and Microbial Source Tracking to Support Watershed Restoration in Kansas and Nebraska.”

EPA will assist the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and Kansas Department of Health and Environment with identifying sources of microbial water pollution and harmful algal bloom assessments using the PhyloChip, an innovative monitoring technology.

Monitoring sources of E. coli and harmful algal blooms is a challenge for environmental managers. In some areas, E. coli has been identified as one of the leading causes of water quality decline. Harmful algal blooms can lead to drinking water contamination and fish or even human poisoning. In Kansas, this project will evaluate the use of new molecular-based technology to identify the cyanobacterial species that produce toxins and factors that promote toxic blooms. In Nebraska, this technology will help identify sources of fecal contamination in rivers and lakes. Combined with ongoing monitoring efforts, the data will provide a comprehensive assessment of the development of harmful algal blooms in Kansas and sources of fecal pollution in Nebraska watersheds.

These assessments will support planning, management and restoration of water resources in Kansas and Nebraska.

Learn more about this project and others at: https://www.epa.gov/innovation/2017-regionalstate-innovation-projects.