PROVIDENCE – Gov. Donald L. Carcieri and W. Michael Sullivan, director of the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, yesterday joined in announcing about $5.39 million in open space grants.
“North to south, east to west, we are safeguarding our state for future generations to explore,” Carcieri said. “These state funds will be matched with local bonds and federal grants to generate over $17.4 million in land preservation throughout Rhode Island.”
The DEM’s Sullivan said: “These grants will significantly add to the areas of protected open space in Rhode Island. … The matching contributions being provided by the many partners involved in these new acquisitions underscore the strong grass roots support for land protection that exists throughout the state,” he added.
The money – divided among 17 projects – will assist cities and towns, nonprofit environmental agencies and natural heritage land trusts in preserving 1,587 acres of open space across the state. The selected projects were chosen from among 36 applications that were received by the DEM and reviewed and ranked by the Natural Heritage Preservation Commission, through the Governor’s Advisory Council.
Among the grant winners are projects to protect 355 acres at the headwaters of the Saugatucket River that include a large wetlands areaas well as to protect the Pawtucket Water Supply.
The grants provide up to 50 percent, to a maximum of $400,000, of the cost of purchasing land or conservation easements on land that is deemed to have significant natural, ecological, agricultural or scenic value.
The money comes from the $70 million Open Space, Recreation, Bay and Watershed Protection Bond approved by voters in 2004, and from funds remaining from the 2000 Open Space bond.
Additional information is available at ri.gov.
