Conservation After the Gavel

Red Cockaded Woodpecker (Dominic Sherony, CC Wikimedia Commons)

Role: Program Lead

Time Frame: 1987-1999

Deliverables: More than 75 special law enforcement accounts totaling in excess of $67 million in settlement, restitution, and mitigation dollars.

In 1987, a court in Tallahassee, Florida found a construction company guilty of willfully knocking down a nesting tree inhabited by red-cockaded woodpeckers while clearing land for development. The court directed the defendant to make a $300,000 payment of restitution to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (Foundation) as trustee for the endangered woodpeckers. The Foundation established a special account for the funds and provided a series of grants to Big Cypress National Preserve, St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and the Apalachicola and Osceola National Forests for work directed at the conservation and recovery of the red-cockaded woodpecker in Florida.

 Since 1987, the Foundation has worked with Federal and State Agencies on restitution funds and court-ordered settlements dedicated to on-the-ground conservation of fish and wildlife resources and their habitats. In the time frame of 1987-1999, the Foundation established more than 75 special law enforcement accounts totaling in excess of $67 million in settlement, restitution, and mitigation dollars. These funds came from wildlife-related violations of the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Lacey Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and Oil Pollution Act, among others. Payments were the result of settlements from both civil and criminal cases and paid in addition to any fines levied on the defendants payable to the U.S. Government, states, and courts.

 In all these cases, restitution funds and settlement monies are directed back to conservation projects in the areas where the violations occurred, or to directly assist conservation of the species of fish/wildlife impacted by the violation. In many cases, the Foundation utilized settlement dollars to raise additional funds through a challenge grant program. For example, in the Iroquois Gas

Pipeline settlement, the Foundation leveraged the $2.25 million delivered to The Foundation into $7.27 million for 36 on-the-ground conservation projects.

 “Where else can we convert settlement funds into on-the-ground wetlands work while leveraging our money? I know of no better vehicle for continuing conservation.”

James C. Woods, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Northern District of New York