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of existing depletions. Of this amount, Colorado's share would be $15 million. Colorado is also responsible for an additional $3 to $5 million for actions necessary to offset the effects of future water development in the South Platte and North Platte Basin in Colorado, for a total Colorado obligation of $18 to 20 million over a 13 to 16 period. The balance will be the obligation of our partners, the federal government, and the states of Wyoming and Nebraska. Recommended Expenditures from the HB 98-1006 Fund in FY 1999-2000• The Department recommends allocating $300,000 from the Fund toward Colorado's obligations to the Platte River Basin Cooperative Agreement in FY 1999-2000. These funds would address Colorado's share of on-going planning costs necessary to make capital expenditures related to land and water conservation upon inception of the Program. The Preble's meadow jumping mouse (PMJM) is another species that has been the focus of a large-scale protection effort that reduces or eliminates the regulatory compliance burdens imposed by the federal ESA. The PMJM occupies riparian habitats from the Colorado Springs area to northern Larimer County in Colorado, and riparian areas in the foothills and plains in and around Cheyenne, Wyoming. PMJM populations apparently have declined extensively throughout the species' range in Colorado and Wyoming possibly due to habitat conversion and degradation. On May 12, 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) listed the PMJM as a "threatened" species under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). In its decision to list the PMJM, the Service identified residential and commercial development, flood control and water projects, mining, highway and bridge construction, and livestock grazing as possible causes of the species' decline. Under the framework established by the 1995 Declining Species MOA, the DNR, working with numerous local government and private sector partners, is coordinating a collaborative planning process to address conservation of the PMJM. This effort is designed to reduce or eliminate the need for federal regulation of the numerous activities along the Front Range that could affect the PMJM or its habitat. Key Issues: The collaborative PMJM planning effort is scheduled to be completed by May 1999. The result is likely to be at least five separate but complementary protection plans for the Preble's mouse, or one each for the planning sub-areas of El Paso County, Douglas and Elbert counties, Jefferson County, Boulder County, and Larimer and Weld Counties. These plans will be accompanied by appropriate implementing agreements. The planning effort is currently focused on determining whether local programs that protect riparian habitats (e.g. local floodplain ordinances, opens space purchase programs, density development bonuses, transferable development rights, etc.) can substitute for direct federal regulation of numerous land use activities that may affect the mouse and its habitat. If so, federal permits will be written to allow activities such as trail construction, gravel mining, highway and home construction Native Species Conservation Trust Fund Page 8 Annual Report to the Colorado General Assembly Colorado Department of Natural Resources