(October 7, 2026) – Final week, the U.S. Senate handed laws to reauthorize the Nice Lakes Restoration Initiative, a federal program that invests tens of millions of {dollars} to scrub up poisonous air pollution, shield water high quality, and restore important habitat for birds and different wildlife. The Home and Senate will now work on making a single remaining model of the laws that each chambers can approve.
Assertion from Marnie Urso, Senior Coverage Director for Audubon’s Nice Lakes Workplace:
“We applaud the U.S. Senate for taking this necessary step towards continued funding for restoration tasks throughout the Nice Lakes area which can be creating more healthy habitat for birds and communities.”
“The endangered Nice Lakes Piping Plover, as soon as getting ready to extinction, reached a record-high 99 nesting pairs this season due to help from the Nice Lakes Restoration Initiative. And that is only one superb success story. Greater than 8,000 tasks throughout the area have already helped to revive important habitat, enhance water high quality, and get better species throughout the Nice Lakes area—together with Audubon Nice Lakes’ work to revive 10,000 acres of wetland habitat for weak marsh birds and other people.”
“Restoring wetlands takes a devoted crew of scientists, researchers and conservationists to seek out the options that work for birds. Because of help from the Nice Lakes Restoration Initiative, we’re working in communities throughout the area—in locations like Ottawa Sands County Park in Ferrysburg, Michigan, and Powderhorn Lake Forest Protect in Chicago—to create the circumstances marsh birds just like the American Bitterns must thrive whereas supporting clear ingesting water, and flood safety for communities throughout the area.”
“When birds have the habitat they want, they thrive, and so do individuals. We urge Congress to make Nice Lakes Restoration Initiative reauthorization a high precedence when it returns from recess.”
