Interior Secretary Gale Norton today announced more than $70 million in grants to 28 states and one territory to support conservation planning and acquisition of vital habitat for threatened and endangered fish, wildlife and plant species. The grants will benefit species ranging from the Delmarva fox squirrel in the East to peninsular bighorn sheep in the West.
Colorado will receive $384,000 for the San Luis Valley Regional Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) located in Alamosa, Conejos, Mineral, Rio Grande, and SaguacheCounties. The grant will fund the development of a regional approach to southwestern willow flycatcher conservation planning in the San Luis Valley. The HCP will cover approximately two million acres and 150 stream miles. The project has widespread support from numerous State, local, and Federal agencies as well as non-governmental organizations. The project lies within the Rio Grande Recovery Unit, one of six recovery units for the southwestern willow flycatcher. The San Luis Valley is one of four management units within the recovery unit, and provides the best potential in Colorado for supporting recovery of the flycatcher. In addition to the flycatcher, the HCP will cover the bald eagle and the yellow-billed cuckoo."The strength of our partnership with the states is clearly one of the keys to the Bush Administration's success in conserving and recovering threatened and endangered species throughout this country," Norton said. "Today's grant awards support state efforts to build and strengthen important cost-effective conservation partnerships with local groups and private landowners to benefit wildlife."
Funded through the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund and authorized by Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act, the grants will enable states to work with private landowners, conservation groups and other agencies to initiate conservation planning efforts and acquire and protect habitat to support the conservation of threatened and endangered species.
The Cooperative Endangered Species Fund this year provides $49 million through the Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition Grants Program, $8.6 million through the Habitat Conservation Planning Assistance Grants Program and $13.5 million through the Recovery Land Acquisition Grants Program. The three programs were established to help reduce potential conflicts between the conservation of threatened and endangered species and land development and use.
"These grant programs are some of the many tools we have to help landowners conserve valuable wildlife habitats in the day-to-day management of their lands," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams said. "They help landowners finance the creative solutions to land use and conservation issues that ultimately lead to the recovery of endangered and threatened species."
Under the Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition Program, the Service provides grants to states or territories for land acquisitions associated with approved Habitat Conservation Plans. Grants do not fund any mitigation required of an HCP permittee, but are instead intended to support acquisitions by the state or local governments that complement actions associated with the HCP.
A Habitat Conservation Plan is an agreement between a landowner and the Service that allows the landowner to incidentally take a threatened or endangered species in the course of otherwise lawful activities when the landowner agrees to conservation measures to minimize and mitigate the impact of the taking. A Habitat Conservation Plan may also be developed by a county or state to cover certain activities of all landowners within their jurisdiction and may address multiple species. There are more than 357 Habitat Conservation Plans currently in effect, covering 458 separate species on approximately 39 million acres, with some 407 additional plans under development, covering approximately 100 million acres.
The Habitat Conservation Planning Assistance Program provides grants to states and territories to support the development of Habitat Conservation Plans, through funding of baseline surveys and inventories, document preparation, outreach and similar planning activities.
The Recovery Land Acquisition Grants Program provides funds to states and territories to acquire habitat for endangered and threatened species in approved recovery plans. Acquisition of habitat to secure long-term protection is often an essential element of a comprehensive recovery effort for a listed species.
For more information on the 2004 grant awards for these programs (Catalog of Domestic Federal Assistance Number 15.615), see the Fish and Wildlife Service's Endangered Species Grants home page at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/grants/.
