The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today awarded more than $70 million in grants to 29 states 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 endangered red-cockaded woodpecker in the Southeast to the threatened spectacled eider in Alaska.

Funded through the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund and authorized by Section 6 of the U.S. Endangered Species Act, the grants will enable States, working in partnership with private landowners, conservation groups and other agencies and organizations to initiate conservation planning efforts, and to acquire and protect habitat to support the conservation of threatened and endangered species.

"Today’s grant awards recognize the important work that States and their partners are doing to conserve and recover threatened and endangered species. Grants are an important tool in our efforts to empower local governments and citizens as they seek to develop voluntary conservation partnerships that provide real benefits to listed species," said Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

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 330 Habitat Conservation Plans currently in effect covering approximately 30 million acres, and some 320 more are being developed.

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). 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.

Project partners for the Washington County Utah Desert Tortoise Reserve will receive an $8,348,525 Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition Grant to purchase up to ten parcels of Mojave desert tortoise habitat to ensure the viability of a reserve created as mitigation under the Washington County, Utah HCP. The reserve, vital to the long term survival and recovery of the desert tortoise, also benefits additional species, including six federally listed species such as the bald eagle, southwestern willow flycatcher, Virgin River chub, woundfin, dwarf bear poppy, and silar pincushion cactus, one proposed endangered plant, the Shivwits milkvetch, and at least two dozen species of concern. The purchase of these pristine parcels will significantly reduce habitat fragmentation in the reserve.

The Recovery Land Acquisition Grants Program provides funds to states and territories for acquisition of habitat for endangered and threatened species in support of 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.

In Utah, the Provo River/Hobble Creek Restoration (Lake and Utah Counties) will receive a $235,237 Recovery Land Acquisition Grant to partially fund the purchase of land along the Provo River and Hobble Creek to protect the only known spawning and rearing habitat for the endangered June sucker. Project partners, including the Nature Conservancy, Central Utah Water Conservancy, Utah Department of Natural Resources and Ducks Unlimited will also create and restore wetland and aquatic habitat. Acquisition of 14 parcels totaling 164 acres will protect open space within the rapidly developing Salt Lake City urban corridor.

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 example, in northern Idaho, a $563,000 HCP Planning Assitance Grant will help the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) work with the Service and other stakeholders to develop a Habitat Conservation Plan to minimize any impacts of IDL activities to listed species. The HCP will provide conservation benefits to listed threatened and endangered species, including grizzly bear, bull trout, lynx, and the critically endangered woodland caribou, while providing the State of Idaho with assurances that important land management practices can continue. Both Idaho and the species will benefit from this HCP. IDL will be able to fulfill its mandate to maximize the long term return from these endowment lands to the beneficiaries with certainty regarding compliance with the Endangered Species Act, and the conservation of listed species will be enhanced.

Nationally, the Section 6 grant programs include the $6.6 million Habitat Conservation Planning Assistance Grants Program, the $51.1 million Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition Grants Program, and the $12.7 million 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.

"As someone who has worked for decades at the State and local level on behalf of wildlife conservation, I know these grants really help," said Fish and Wildlife Service director Steve Williams. "They provide not only a financial boost to grantees but also provide encouragement by supporting on-the-ground efforts."

For more information on the 2003 grant awards for these programs see the Service’s Endangered Species home page at http://endangered.fws.gov/grants/index.html.