MOBILE, Ala. - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Allatoona Lake is pleased to announce that it has received a 2021 Corps of Engineers Handshake Partnership Program $25,000 Grant.
The Handshake Partnership Grant will be used for the Allatoona Lake Pollinator and Native Habitat Restoration Program to maintain native pollinator gardens, manage honeybee hives, and reestablish native plants for improved wildlife habitat. Allatoona Lake currently partners for this program with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Division, Keep Bartow Beautiful, local beekeeper Amy Murphy, University of Georgia Agriculture Extension Offices in both Bartow and Cherokee Counties, and is excited to add the National Audubon Society as their newest partner.
Handshake Partnerships offer a source of seed money to USACE facilities for initiating new or enhancing existing recreation and natural resources management opportunities with our key partners. The objective is to provide an incentive to USACE Projects to utilize partnering initiatives to their fullest potential serving our communities, and by reinforcing our partnering relationships with local organizations.
Allatoona Lake’s partnership project promotes conservation and will further educate the public on the importance of pollinators in our natural environment to improve biodiversity at the Project, as well as improve the ecosystem throughout the region.
This current grant is the latest earned by the Project, demonstrating their history of being good neighbors and strong partners. “Allatoona has been able to utilize handshake partnership funding five other times to significantly improve on infrastructure, recreation and environmental programs that otherwise would not have been funded,” said Christopher Purvis, Lead Ranger, Allatoona Lake.
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With an area of operation across Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and northern Florida, and a vast military region that includes operations across Central and South America, the Mobile District’s award- winning teams of engineering, construction, regulatory and emergency management professionals are nationally recognized for their leadership in delivery of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ civil works and military programs missions to the Nation.
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