ST. GEORGE — With an extra million dollars allocated to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources’ Endangered Species Mitigation Fund, how will Southern Utah benefit?
In May, the DWR allocated $4.4 million to the fund for the current fiscal year, a temporary seven-figure boost from the typical budget, Paul Thompson said. Thompson is an assistant habitat section chief, administering the Endangered Species Mitigation Fund and the Utah Wildlife Action Plan.
“It’s kind of a big year for us,” he said. “Where most years, it’s a little harder even to allocate because we have always had more projects than we had funding. But with $4.4 instead of $3.4 (million), we were able to stretch that and fund a lot more projects this year.”
Created in 1997, the Endangered Species Mitigation Fund directs funds to protect, conserve and recover “species of greatest conservation need, as identified in the Utah Wildlife Action Plan,” according to a news release issued by the division.
The fund serves two purposes — to improve the status of threatened or endangered species or to delist them if possible and to conserve species that need attention but are not yet federally protected. The DWR works with various partners to gather information on their status, habitat and other data in case they become candidates for listing, Thompson said.
“Our goal is to have the information saying, ‘Hey, we got the right people together working on these species. Here’s their status: it’s either flat or it’s improving,”‘ he said. “And they’re like, ‘Wow, we don’t need to list this plant, insect — this animal because Utah’s on it, and they’re doing their job.'”
The allocation will fund approximately 42 projects between July 2023 to June 2024, the release states. Since its creation, over 600 projects benefiting native fish and wildlife have been completed, with more than $80 million dedicated to conservation efforts.
Two species have been delisted and three were downlisted from endangered to threatened as their populations recovered. Additionally, such projects have prevented 28 species from requiring federal listing, the release states.
“Conservation funding for species that are not hunted or fished is hard to come by,” Thompson said in the release. “Those of us in Utah working to better understand and maintain healthy populations for our lesser-known species are fortunate that our state legislature had the foresight to establish the Endangered Species Mitigation Fund to help preserve Utah’s biodiversity.”
Species expected to benefit from about 40% of this year’s funding include those currently listed, such as Virgin River chubs, woundfins and California condors.
The release states that the agency will conduct studies to monitor native species, such as freshwater mussels and Utah’s mountain snails, with other projects focused on better understanding least chubs, pygmy rabbits, bats, rare plants and pollinators, among others.
Additionally, the funding can be matched with state and federal wildlife grants to “stretch” the dollars across more projects, the release states.
About a third of the fund’s usual $3.4 million budget is typically allocated for projects in Southwest Utah, with approximately $730,000 designated for the Virgin River Resource Management and Recovery Program, which works to recover native fish populations and develop water allocations, Thompson said.
Other funds, likely about $2 million in the last 10 years, have helped the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve purchase private property within its boundaries, benefiting landowners who can’t access their parcels and expanding desert tortoise habitat. Thompson said an additional $125,000 allowed the local office to hire a desert tortoise biologist.
In Iron County, projects have benefited Utah prairie dogs, which Thompson described as “very, very cute.” The program funded two biologists to manage, study, survey and translocate the rodents. Recently, the division created a conservation agreement for the species, creating target goals necessary for its delisting.
Because the DWR doesn’t have authority over plants and insects, they’ve been working with partners to conserve those species, Thompson said. For instance, some funds were allocated to determine if monitoring bear claw poppies via drone would be a viable option for the future.
“So instead of going in and trampling all over a delicate (soil) crust, trying to count these plants, they’re able to do it through drone use and photography and get much better counts that way,” he said.
Additionally, the program provided funds for the Survey 123 phone app, which allows biologists and citizens to track and observe at-risk pollinator species as part of the Utah Pollinator Pursuit project. Several native insect species are being considered for listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, such as the Western bumblebee, Thompson said.
“We haven’t really been tracking them, so as the Fish and Wildlife Service now needs information to evaluate (Endangered Species Act) listings, there’s not a lot of information out there,” he said. “So we’re trying to gather that (data) for some of those lesser-known species, like some of our pollinators.”
There are various members on the seven-person Endangered Species Mitigation Fund Advisory Committee, which approves projects, including representatives of the Utah Petroleum Association, the Utah Farm Bureau and the Utah Mining Association, Thompson said. The committee is seeking additional funding through the Utah Legislature to meet its goals.
“Everything we do requires partnerships, and we rely on everyone else that is working out on the landscape or have the authority to help us with some of the threats to our species,” he said.
The video at the top of this article contains clips from various sources, including the reporter, the DWR, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Red Cliffs Desert Reserve and the U.S. Geological Survey.
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