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Federal Grants Buy Habitat for Rare Species WASHINGTON, DC, October 5, 2002 (ENS) - On 160 acres of biologically rich land in Santa Cruz County lie the Zayante Sandhills, a rare habitat found only in the Santa Cruz area. Termed "biological islands" by wildlife officials, the sandhills support more than 90 native species, including the federally endangered Mount Hermon June beetle, Zayante band-winged grasshopper, Ben Lomond spineflower and Ben Lomond wallflower. The same 160 acres located in the Santa Cruz Mountains is covered with stands of coastal redwoods, maritime coastal ponderosa pines, and northern maritime chaparral that shelter the rare plants and insects.
But sand deposits within the Zayante Sandhills habitat have been actively mined for construction purposes for at least five decades, resulting in habitat loss. For $500,000, this 160 acre reservoir of biodiversity is being acquired for preservation by the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, with the assistance of the California Department of Fish and Game. The purchase is part of a $7 million package if grants the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded to wildlife agencies in California, Washington and the Pacific Islands to buy land for rare species. The grants will aid efforts to protect federally threatened and endangered species or federal candidate species. "The Pacific Region continues to have the highest number of imperiled species of any region in the nation," said Anne Badgley, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Pacific region, which includes Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Hawaii and U.S. affiliated Pacific islands. "These grants illustrate our effective partnerships with states," said Badgley, "and we look forward to working with them on projects that protect imperiled species." The grants were awarded under Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act, which provides for funds to be given to states and territories, and through them, to communities and individuals, for species and habitat recovery actions on non-federal lands. These include privately owned lands as well as those owned by state and local governments. Congress first funded Recovery Land Acquisition grants in 2001 in response to states' and landowners' growing interest 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 USFWS awarded the grants based on applications from states that support UFSWS 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 nation, the USFWS and the states sometimes lack the resources to acquire or protect key habitat needed to recover a species. The Recovery Land Acquisition Grant program first received funding in fiscal year 2001 of $10.4 million. That year, the program awarded funding to 13 projects in 10 states, out of 46 proposals requesting more than $33.4 million. In 2002, more than $17 million was available nationwide. The USFWS's six state Pacific Region received 12 proposals from states that totaled about $9.93 million. In California, grants will help protect vernal pool habitat and habitat for salmon, steelhead and other fish in the City of Chico and in San Diego County. Breeding ponds for an endangered salamander, and sand dunes that support snails and kangaroo rats will also be protected. In the Pacific Islands, a $740,000 grant will help protect habitat for rare native birds, bats and butterflies on the island of Saipain in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The native species are being crowded out by the Mariana's fastest growing human population and intensive land development.
The fund has earmarked $1 million to purchase and restore 249 acres of private property that represents the largest remaining undeveloped coastal dune and wetland habitat on Maui's touristed North Shore. The Waihe'e Coastal Dunes and Wetlands Preserve Protection and Recovery Project brings together the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Maui Coastal Land Trust, the Trust for Public Lands, Ducks Unlimited, and the Native Hawaiian Plant Society. In Washington state, one $1.36 million grant will purchase 7,900 acres of shrub-steppe habitat in the Columbia Basin and result in the donation of a 260 acre conservation easement. aid the endangered pygmy rabbit and several other species in the Columbia Basin. The project supports the endangered pygmy rabbit by providing critical links between isolated pygmy rabbit habitats. More than 60 percent of Washington's shrub-steppe habitat has been converted to agriculture, and much of what remains is fragmented and degraded. The grant will be used to enhance the recovery of federal and state candidate species - the Washington ground squirrel, western sage grouse, white-tailed jackrabbit, sage thrasher, and sage sparrow. This project is part of a conservation partnership between The Nature Conservancy, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife and Natural Resources and private landowners. In Thurston County, Washington, a $541,418 grant is being used to match $4,380,000 in state funds to purchase key prairies and oak woodlands that provide refuge and serve as links for movement of at-risk species between existing protected lands. This project, known as the South Puget Prairies and Oak Woodlands Recovery Land Acquisition, will protect lands on which a range of habitat types are adjacent to one another - mounded prairie, oak woodland, streamside and wetland habitats, and mature conifer forest. The project area provides habitat for at least 10 listed and candidate species, including the federally threatened plants Golden Paintbrush and Water Howellia, and four federal candidate species, the mardon skipper and Whulge checkerspot butterflies, the Oregon spotted frog, and the Mazama pocket gopher. The acquisition sites were identified as priorities in the interagency South Puget Sound Prairies Conservation Plan, a cooperative effort of The Nature Conservancy, the Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife and Natural Resources, Thurston County, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Friends of Puget Prairies. Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All rights reserved. |
Santa Cruz County sandhills (Photo by Jodi McGraw courtesy 
The coast of Maui, increasingly covered with construction (Photo courtesy 