U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Awards $16 Million In Grants To States For Endangered Species Conservation

9/25/01

Interior Secretary Gale Norton today awarded more than $16 million in grants to 25 states to promote the conservation of threatened and endangered species.

"These grants are very much in line with my philosophy that states should be given more resources and greater flexibility to protect habitat and conserve threatened and endangered species," said Secretary Norton. "States will use these grants to strengthen and build vital and cost-effective conservation partnerships with local communities and willing private landowners - partnerships that are essential to helping species prosper and recover."

The grants will benefit threatened and endangered species in every region of the country, helping local partnerships acquire and protect crucial habitat and supporting the development of Habitat Conservation Plans that allow private landowners to use and develop their land while conserving listed species.

The grants will benefit dozens of threatened and endangered species, such as marbled murrelets and bull trout in the Pacific Northwest, the aplomado falcon in the Southwest, the Karner blue butterfly in the Midwest, the Florida scrub jay in the Southeast, Atlantic salmon in the Northeast, and the Preble's meadow jumping mouse in the Rocky Mountains. In many cases, projects funded by the grants will also protect green space that is vital to many communities, while benefitting game species and other wildlife that share threatened and endangered species habitat.

Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act provides funds to States and territories, and through them, to communities and individuals, for species and habitat recovery actions on non-Federal lands. Today's grant awards are the first under the Recovery Land Acquisition and the Habitat Conservation Planning Assistance Grant programs.  Congress funded these new grants to respond to the growing interest shown by States and landowners in managing their lands in ways that benefit species and their habitats. Non-Federal project partners contributed an average of 25 percent of their projects' total costs.

The Service awarded approximately $10.4 million in Recovery Land Acquisition grants, which provide funding to States to acquire lands that support approved endangered species recovery plans. Land acquisition and protection is often an essential element of a comprehensive plan to recover listed species.  With land values increasing in many areas of the country, the Service and the States sometimes lack the resources to acquire or protect key habitat needed to recover a species.

Grant funding will be used to acquire and protect important prairie, coastal,  mountainous desert, cave and riparian habitat, land that represents critical portions of species' last remaining habitat.  Some of these acquisitions support many endangered species, as well as important habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife. For example, acquisition of property in Kern County, California, benefits the largest known population of the Kern primrose sphinx moth by securing protection for an area that is the only place this species has been sighted in the past 20 years.  In
Tennessee, acquisition of a 25-acre site will protect one of only five known populations of the endangered Tennessee coneflower.

An additional $6 million in grants for Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) planning assistance will help states support the development of HCPs. These conservation plans balance the need to conserve threatened and endangered species with landowners' desire to use and develop their property. By working with the Service during the HCP process to identify ways to offset any harmful effects of use or development on listed species, landowners can continue to use their land while promoting listed species conservation.

Grants will underwrite the development of HCPs across the country in areas ranging from the North Slope of Alaska to the islands of Hawaii, from the mountains of West Virginia to the forests of the Pacific Northwest.  These HCPs will benefit a wide range of plants and animals, including the Houston toad in Texas, Ute ladies-tresses in Washington state, and the Florida golden aster in Florida.  Most of the HCPs will address multiple species, many of them on a city, county, or large watershed basis. Each region of the country received at least one grant in each category, if applications were received.

"These grants recognize creative and effective partnerships among states,
organizations and landowners that are making a difference for endangered species on the ground. Successful implementation of the Endangered Species Act depends on these types of partnerships," said Marshall Jones, acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Attached are descriptions of the grants approved for this year's program.

2001  Cooperative  Endangered  Species  Conservation Fund (Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act) Funded Habitat Conservation Planning Grants

Great Lakes/Big Rivers Region

Statewide  Habitat  Conservation  Plan  for  the  Karner  blue butterfly in Michigan (MI)  B A $712,886 grant will establish an ecosystem-based HCP for the  Karner  blue  butterfly  and  help  increase  habitat availability and population  levels of the butterfly in Michigan.  This program will benefit the  Karner blue throughout its range in Michigan and have the potential to benefit  more  than  30  state-listed  species  and more than 30 additional special concern species.

South  Dakota  Least  Tern  and  Piping  Plover  Habitat  Conservation Plan Development  (SD) B A $37,500 grant will aid development of an HCP designed for  the  protection  and conservation of the least tern and piping plover, while  also  benefiting the bald eagle, pallid sturgeon, whooping crane and Eskimo  curlew. This  HCP will develop essential habitat protections for the   plover  and  tern,  while  reducing  conflicts  with  recreation  and development.

Prairie  Bush-Clover Multi-State Recovery Land Acquisition Project (IL, IA, MN,  WI) A $517,500 grant will enable acquisition or protection by easement of  approximately  390  acres  that  encompass the remaining populations of prairie  bush-clover,  a  federally  threatened  species  found  in native, tallgrass  prairie, throughout its four-state range.  Several other species of concern will also benefit from this acquisition.

Park  Mammoth  Bat Caves Land Acquisition (Edmonson County, KY) B The grant provides  $236,250 to acquire and protect a 150-acre property that contains Jesse  James  and Coach Caves, two caves that provide essential habitat for two  federally endangered species, the gray bat and the Indiana bat.  These caves  are rated among the top 10 most critical hibernation roosts in North America.   In  addition,  acquisition  of  this  property  will benefit two species  of  management  concern,  the  Rafinesque's  big-eared bat and the southeastern bat, as well as three other bat species.

Land   Acquisition   for  the  Recovery  of  Geocarpon  minimum  (Franklin, Cleveland,  and  Drew  Counties,  AR)   B  A $300,000 grant will enable the acquisition  of approximately 400 acres of saline soil prairies in the West Gulf  Coastal  Plain and the Arkansas Valley Natural Divisions of Arkansas. This  acquisition  will greatly contribute to the recovery of the federally listed  plant  species  geocarpon  minimum.   This acquisition will provide protection  in portions of this species= statewide range where it currently has  no  protection, and greater protection to the largest known population of the species in Arkansas, aiding its long-term survival.  The acquisition will  also  benefit  the  federally  endangered  red-cockaded woodpecker by protecting suitable foraging and roosting habitat.

Land  Acquisition  to  Expand  the  Population  of the Tennessee Coneflower (Rutherford  County, TN) B The grant provides $159,750 for acquisition of a 25  acre  site  that  will  provide  protection  for one of only five known populations   of  the  federally  endangered  Tennessee  coneflower.   This acquisition  will  protect the only remaining portion of habitat for one of the  largest coneflower populations from development.  The acquisition will also benefit the federally endangered leafy prairie clover.

Land Acquisition for Interior Least Tern, Piping Plover, Bald Eagle, Pallid Sturgeon,  and Lake Sturgeon at Elk Point Bend, Nebraska (Dixon County, NE) -  A  grant  of  $825,000  will  enable  the acquisition and restoration of approximately 500 acres of riverine and flood plain habitat adjacent to the Missouri  River  that  is  important  to  the  recovery  of  the  federally endangered   pallid  sturgeon,  interior  least  tern,  and  the  federally threatened  piping  plover  and  bald  eagle. Project partners will restore sandbars,  side channels, backwater edges, and other shallow water habitats that  will  reconnect the habitat to the Missouri River.  This project will also benefit the State threatened lake sturgeon.