Alternative Fish Habitat Funding within the Community: A Partnership with Shell Appalachia

Finding funding for large-scale fish habitat projects in reservoirs can be difficult.  Conservation agencies and non-governmental organizations are challenged with limited budgets and the bureaucracy of state and federal grant funding can be daunting.  The Friends of Reservoirs group, Tioga County Bass Anglers (TCBA) were looking “outside of the box” when they came upon grant funding from Shell, one of America’s largest oil and natural gas companies.  The TCBA partnered with the Reservoir Fisheries Habitat Partnership and the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission to use the grant funding to complete a large-scale fish habitat project at Nessmuk Lake, Tioga County near the town of Wellsboro.  Shell Appalachia is a permanent stakeholder in the community of Wellsboro due to the abundance of shale gas in northcentral Pennsylvania.  Based on the success of the Nessmuk Lake project, Shell is now interested in investing in fish habitat improvement at two additional Tioga County reservoirs.