WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Herb Kohl announced today that he has secured $300,000 in federal funding for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission's (GLIFWC) environment programs. The funding is part of the FY 2007 Interior Appropriations bill, which the Senate Appropriations Committee approved this morning. Kohl is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and identified this project as priority for funding.

"The Commission's conservation and research efforts help us understand the extent of mercury contamination in our lakes and rivers and, more importantly, what we can do to protect ourselves," Kohl said.

Eleven Ojibwe nations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan compose the GLIFWC. The GLIFWC has off reservation treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather in treaty-ceded lands. In addition the GLIFWC provides natural resource management expertise, conservation enforcement, legal and policy analysis, and public information services. The member tribes of the GLIFWC include: the Bay Mills Indian Community, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and the Lac Vieux Desert Band in Michigan; the Bad River, Red Cliff, Lac du Flambeau, Lac Courte Oreilles, Sokaogon and St. Croix Bands in Wisconsin; the Fond du Lac and Mille Lacs tribes in Minnesota.

The Interior Appropriations Bill must now go before the full Senate for consideration.

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