Regional Biodiversity Fund

The Lake Erie Allegheny Partnership for Biodiversity Fund has been established to finance projects that promote and protect our region’s biodiversity as determined by the science-based LEAP Biodiversity Plan.

The goal of the Biodiversity Fund is to attract funds for conservation projects from sources not previously available to our individual members and to distribute these funds through a collaborative, community driven process. The Fund is positioned to capture environmental settlement monies that might otherwise leave the region, corporate, philanthropic and personal donations.

Funding Criteria

Projects seeking support from the Biodiversity Fund are evaluated based on the extent to which the project:

• Preserves extant populations of globally, state, or federally imperiled or rare species or communities as determined by the appropriate agency or other priority species as determined by LEAP;
• Preserves habitat important for the viability of populations of globally, state, or federally imperiled or rare species as determined by the appropriate agency or other priority species as determined by LEAP. Important habitat may be on the project site or on a contiguous site with a verifiably high likelihood that these species would then inhabit the project site;
• Preserves high quality examples of representative communities of the LEAP region;
• Restores rare species or communities known to have historically existed in the LEAP region; and,
• Connects currently protected natural areas.

Collaborative Community Driven Process

In January 2010, LEAP established the following organizations to be members of the Fund Committee. Terms of service were decided by lottery at a Fund Committee meeting.

LEAP Fund Committee January 2010

Organization	Term of Service	Representative
Chagrin River Watershed Partners	1 year	Amy H. Brennan
Cleveland Metroparks	2 years	Patty Stevens
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Natural Areas	1 year	Jim Bissell
Cuyahoga County Planning Commission	2 years	Carol Thaler
Cuyahoga River Community Planning Organization	1 year	Jim White
Cuyahoga Valley National Park	3 years	Kevin Skerl
The Holden Arboretum	3 years	Brian Parsons
Metro Parks Serving Summit County	3 years	Rob Curtis
The Trust for Public Land	3 years	Neil Hess
Western Reserve Resource Conservation and Development Council	2 years	Meghan Chaney
Western Reserve Land Conservancy	1 year	Julia Musson
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District	2 years	Kyle Dreyfus Wells
The Nature Conservancy	1 year	Marleen Kromer

Call for Projects June 2010

The Fund Committee has decided to distribute $50,000 of the Arcelor Mittal Great Lakes Restoration Program grant that was received in 2008. The Call for Projects opens July 1, 2010 with grant applications due August 9, 2010. The Fund Committee will evaluate the projects submitted and recommend project(s) for funding to the full LEAP consortium at their meeting in September 2010.

LEAP Call for Projects 6.0

Work to be Done

Committee members are working to promote the benefits of the Biodiversity Fund to local attorneys, law enforcement officials, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the Ohio Attorney General and the US Attorney’s Office.

History

Beginnings

In 2004, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) approached several conservation organizations in NE Ohio about ways to increase grant making in northeast Ohio. They were interested in providing a vehicle for capturing new (or previously unattainable) sources of funding to preserve and restore natural areas within the northeast Ohio region. As a result, a subcommittee of the Lake Erie Allegheny Partnership (LEAP) for Biodiversity was formed.

LEAP Fund Committee

From 2005 through 2009, the Biodiversity Fund Committee, an informal group, met periodically to develop an agreement between the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History on behalf of LEAP, reach out to the US Attorney’s Office, and prepare grant requests.

First Grant Awarded

In April 2008, LEAP received a $100,000 grant award from the Arcelor Mittal Great Lakes Restoration Program to open the LEAP Fund at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and to open the Fund and provide seed money for projects.

Fund Created at National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

In September 2009, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, on behalf of the LEAP consortium, entered into an agreement with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to establish the Biodiversity Fund account.

For additional information about the Regional Biodiversity Fund, contact:
Carol G. Thaler, AICP
Local Advisory Committee Chair
(216) 443-3708