Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation approves a record number of grants totalling over $750,000

The Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation (ASCF) celebrated Earth Day this year with the announcement that grants totalling some $756,657 will be awarded to 53 projects slated for the 2014 season. This is both the largest number of grants and the highest amount of funding ever dispensed in the Foundation’s eight year history.

This year’s round of competition attracted some 74 applications from conservation, environmental, and Aboriginal groups, as well as university researchers in Atlantic Canada and Québec. “With the support of our funding partners, the Foundation has established itself as a major funding agent for wild Atlantic salmon conservation and river conservation in Canada,” the Honourable Rémi Bujold, ASCF Chair, said today.

Of the 53 projects, four are inter-provincial, with funding totalling $85,000 with work benefiting salmon populations and habitat across Atlantic Canada and Québec.

The remaining 49 are provincially-based projects including:

•             17 projects in New Brunswick, with a total of $226,300, assisted with funding from Alcool NB Liquor Corporation;

•             7 projects in Newfoundland and Labrador totalling $158,650, assisted with funding from Newfoundland Liquor Corporation;

•             6 projects in Prince Edward Island, totalling $85,100, assisted with funding from PEI Liquor Control Commission;

•             7 projects in Nova Scotia, totalling $78,000; and,

•             10 projects in Québec, with a total of $123,200.

“All of us with ASCF are very grateful to our partner liquor commissions, their participating product suppliers, and all the customers for their extremely valuable support,” said Hon. Bujold. “As a result, we were able to fund several more projects this year in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island”.

Submissions were assessed by the Foundation’s five provincial advisory committees and its central advisory committee. “As is the case every year, we were very impressed with the quality and quantity of the applications we received,” said Hon. Bujold.

“We are also pleased that each of the provinces has a number of long range, multi-year projects,” Bujold added. “This shows that interest in conservation of wild Atlantic salmon is widespread, active and enduring. Organizations needing support now look to ASCF as a reliable, established source of funds.”

The Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation is a volunteer, non-profit, charitable organization established with the goal of helping to achieve healthy and sustainable wild Atlantic salmon stocks in Atlantic Canada and Québec Funded with an endowment from the Government of Canada, the proceeds from partnership arrangements, sponsorships and donations from generous supporters, the Foundation has created a trust fund to promote and strengthen partnerships among groups working to conserve wild Atlantic salmon. Conservation projects and program administration are financed from interest earned by the trust fund.