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do <br />(6) Conservation of short grass prairie dependent species: ($1.2 miClion) <br />Projects proposed within this category include both research and monitoring of high-priority <br />wildlife species associated with this habitat. Topics include research into reproductive <br />needs/limitations for burrowing owl, a state threatened species; identification of mortality <br />sources limiting survival of mountain plover chicks in agricultural and short-grass landscapes, a <br />species of special concern under federal listing litigation; developing alternative techniques to <br />estimate abundance and trends of black-tailed prairie dogs, also a species under federal listing <br />litigation; and monitoring response of prairie birds to restoration of prairie grasslands. <br />(7) Development and Storage of Plant Materials for Native Species Restoration: <br />($2.5 million) <br />A significant barrier to effective reclamation or restoration of degraded habitats is availability of <br />seed from native and locally adapted grasses, shrubs and forbs. The lack of native and locally <br />adapted seeds very often results in species with substantially less wildlife value, or poorly <br />adapted to the site, or non-native species are used in reclamation/restoration efforts. To meet this <br />demand, Utah has established their own program of developing cultivars of key species, <br />contracting out to local farmers to produce seed from these species, and built and staffed a <br />warehouse for safe storage, mixing and distribution of seeds or other plant materials. This <br />proposal is to contract with the Natural Resource Conservation Service Meeker Plant Material <br />Center for collection of seed from key native plants, conduct research to successfully propagate <br />them, development of foundation fields to produce seed in bulk, and then ultimately contract for <br />production. A climate-controlled warehouse would be constructed to store, mix and distribute <br />seeds. <br />(8) Forward-looking species conservation studies/inventory: ($800,000) <br />A variety of inventory and monitoring efforts are proposed to expand our knowledge of native <br />wildlife species that may be declining and in need of conservation effort. This would enable us <br />to reverse declining trends before critically low abundance or distribution levels are reached, and <br />be an affirmative defense against listing petitions should they arise. Improved knowledge and <br />pre-emptive comservation ?ctions are often cffective in precluding the need for specics protection <br />through federal listing. Topics under this category include a broad and diverse range of <br />proposals to achieve these objectives. They include investigating habitat use by several bat <br />species, use of occupancy modeling to better track population trends in northern leopard frog, a <br />species petitioned for federal listing, and pika, an small mammal species for which a federal <br />listing petition is anticipated; clarification of taxonomic identity of southwestern willow <br />flycatcher in Colorado (a federal and state endangered species), and evaluation of conservation <br />actions on playas as habitat for a large and diverse eastern plains wetland wildlife community, <br />and on habitats conserved under the Conservation Reserve Program SAFE initiative for <br />Columbian sharptail grouse habitat.