Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne today announced more than $68 million in grants to 21 states and one territory to support conservation planning and acquisition of vital habitat for threatened and endangered species across the nation. The grants, awarded through the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund, will benefit species ranging from butterflies to bull trout.
The Southwestern States of Arizona and Texas both receive a share.
Authorized under Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act, the cooperative endangered species fund this year will provide $7.5 million through the Habitat Conservation Planning Assistance Grants Program, $47 million through the Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition Grants Program and $13.9 million through the Recovery Land Acquisition Grants Program.
These three programs were established to help reduce potential conflicts between the conservation of threatened and endangered species and land development and use.
Texas Parks and Wildlife/Travis County will receive a grant of $5,742,500 to expand the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve with the purchase of the Purcell Tract . This project will protect 17.6 acres of habitat vital for the conservation of five endangered karst species and three karst species of concern. The tract surrounds entrances to three caves containing endangered karst species, including Bone Cave harvestman, Tooth Cave ground beetle, Tooth Cave spider, Tooth Cave pseudoscorpion, and Kretschmarr Cave mold beetle. These karst species cannot be recovered without protection of these features. The acquisition will also benefit two endangered songbirds, the golden-cheeked warbler and black-capped vireo. This tract provide important connectivity with existing Travis County protected lands.
The HCP Planning Assistance Program provides grants to states and territories to support the development of HCPs through funding of baseline surveys and inventories, document preparation, outreach, and similar planning activities. In Arizona, the Service awarded a $274,505 grant to Arizona Game and Fish Department/Pima County assist with the County'sMonitoring Plan and Protocol for the Pima County Multi-Species Conservation Plan. The County, in collaboration with local stakeholders, initiated a Habitat Conservation Planning project in 1999. The grant will enable Pima County to design a biological monitoring plan and protocols that will ensure biological monitoring required by the Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan is scientifically valid and adequate for permit compliance. The Conservation Plan covers 36 species of concern, including lesser long-nosed bat, southwestern willow flycatcher, desert pupfish, Gila chub, Gila topminnow, Chiricahua leopard frog, Huachuca water umbel, and Pima pineapple cactus.
The Recovery Land Acquisition Grants Program provides funds to states and territories to acquire habitat for endangered and threatened species with approved recovery plans. Habitat acquisition to secure long term protection is often an essential element of a comprehensive recovery effort for a listed species.
The Service awarded a grant of $685,000 to Arizona Game and Fish Department to acquire land in Cochise County. The Yarbrough acquisition will protect approximately 140 acres along the SanPedro River, one of the most imperiled river systems in the Southwest. It will benefit the Southwestern willow-flycatcher and Huachuca water umbel. Preservation of the property will help prevent ongoing rapid subdivision and residential development, and attendant groundwater pumping that removes the biological effectiveness of habitat. The San Pedro Valley supports one of the largest sub-populations of the flycatcher.
Texas received two grants under the Recovery Land Acquisition Grants Program
Whooping Crane Seadrift Habitat in Calhoun County. Texas Parks and Wildlife/The Nature Conservancy will receive $412,750 to acquire a conservation easement conservation easement
A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a government agency or qualified conservation organization that restricts the type and amount of development that may take place on a property in the future. Conservation easements aim to protect habitat for birds, fish and other wildlife by limiting residential, industrial or commercial development. Contracts may prohibit alteration of the natural topography, conversion of native grassland to cropland, drainage of wetland and establishment of game farms. Easement land remains in private ownership.
Learn more about conservation easement to preserve approximately 2,160 acres on the J. Welder Ranch, an area of coastal marsh that is optimal habitat for the endangered whooping crane and brown pelican, and the threatened piping plover. Increasing commercial and residential development pressures in whooping crane habitat in Aransas and Calhoun counties make the need for habitat protection measures paramount for the recovery of these species.
Morton Golden-cheeked Warbler Preserve in Comal County. The Service made a grant of $652,312.50 to assist Texas Parks Wildlife/Comal County with the protection of the Morton tract. The approximately 280 acres will be acquired either by conservation easement or fee simple acquisition. The land contains habitat to benefit the endangered golden-cheeked warbler on-site, and the endangered fountain darter, Peck's Cave amphipod, Comal Springs riffle beetle, and Comal Springs dryopid beetle, downstream of the property. This property lies within a larger block of endangered golden-cheeked warbler habitat and is within the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, which supports habitat for the endangered aquatic species (fish and invertebrates). The property is near the rapidly urbanizing city of New Braunfels.
For a complete list of the 2007 grant awards for these programs (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 15.615), please visit the Service's Endangered Species Grants webpage: http://www.fws.gov/endangered/grants/.
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 547 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.
