U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE AWARDS GRANTS TO SUPPORT
HABITAT CONSERVATION PLANNING AND LAND ACQUISITION FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES

$33.4 Million Awarded to Support California HCP Projects

May 2007

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded more than $68 million in grants to states to support conservation planning and purchases of vital habitat for threatened and endangered fish, wildlife, and plant species. California received $33.4 million for 8 projects that will benefit species ranging from the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard to Butte County meadowfoam.

The grants will enable the State of California—working in partnership with private landowners, conservation groups and other agencies and organizations—to support conservation planning efforts and buy and protect habitat to conserve threatened and endangered species. The grants were authorized by Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act.

The grants were established to help reduce potential conflicts between the conservation of threatened and endangered species, and land development and use. The grants support the creation and implementation of Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs). 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. Non-federal project partners will contribute a minimum of 25 percent of their projects' total costs.

Grants were awarded for HCPs under two programs:

1. The Habitat Conservation Planning Assistance Program ($1.8 million in California), which will provide grants to local communities that are creating HCPs, through funding of baseline surveys and inventories, document preparation, outreach, and similar planning activities.
    
2. The Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition Program ($31.6 million in California), which will provide grants to states and local partners for land acquisitions associated with approved HCPs. Grants do not fund any mitigation required of an HCP permittee, but are instead intended to support land purchases that complement actions associated with the HCP.

California's Natural Community Conservation Planning (NCCP) program complements the Service's HCP program for conserving endangered species on private lands. The NCCP program strives to conserve natural communities at the ecosystem scale while accommodating compatible land use. The NCCP program seeks to anticipate and prevent the controversies caused by new species' listings by focusing on the long-term stability of wildlife and plant communities and by including key interests in the process.