Interior Secretary Gale Norton today announced more than $70.5 million in grants to 26 states to support conservation planning and acquisition of vital habitat for threatened and endangered fish, wildlife, and plant species. The grants, awarded through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund, will benefit species throughout the United States ranging from mussels to bull trout. Oklahoma received a land acquisition grant of more than $400,000.
"Recovery of threatened and endangered species cannot be accomplished without the active support of private landowners. These grants will enable our State partners to work cooperatively with landowners, communities, and Tribes to restore and protect habitat and undertake other management actions that will benefit dozens of imperiled species across the nation," said Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
Authorized by Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act, the grants 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 $13.4 million through the Recovery Land Acquisition Grants Program, $8.5 million through the Habitat Conservation Planning Assistance Grants Program and $48.6 million through the Habitat Conservation Plan 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.
45. ; mso-prop-change: Louise Clemency 20050831T1630The 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.
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation will receive $425,850 to assist with the acquisition of two tracts of land in Adair County that contains at least three caves used by the endangered Ozark big-eared bat. The acquisition will protect 820 acres of high quality foraging habitat. These tracts are adjacent to the Ozark Plateau National Wildlife Refuge and will facilitate dispersal between the Refuge and important protected habitats in Arkansas. Conservation of these caves and surrounding forested habitat will greatly contribute toward recovery of this bat.
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 (HCPs). These HCPs, which are agreements between a landowner and the Service, allow a landowner to incidentally take threatened or endangered species in the course of otherwise lawful activities when that landowner agrees to conservation measures designed to minimize and mitigate the impact of taking. HCPs may also be developed by a county or state to cover certain activities of all landowners within their own jurisdiction; it may address multiple species. There are more than 469 HCPs currently in effect covering 588 separate species on approximately 40 million acres. The grants are targeted to help landowners who want to undertake proactive conservation work on their lands to conserve imperiled species.
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.
For a complete list of the 2005 grant awards for these programs (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 15.615), see the Service" ; mso-ascii- ; mso-hansi- ; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol- "mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol- =s Endangered Species Grants home page at http://www.fws.gov/endangered/grants/
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 63 fishery resource offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
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