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I. INTRODUCTION COLORADO ISA GROWING, DYNAMICSTATE. Colorado's strong economy, excellent business opportunities, and natural environment attract new residents and development activities in large numbers every year. Between 1990 and 1997, the state grew by 18.2 percent, from 3.29 million to 3.93 million residents. Such growth established Colorado as the fifth fastest growing state in the nation this decade. Moreover, this trend shows no immediate signs of significantly slowing. The Colorado State Demographers Office projects that, by the year 2010, 4.89 million people will call Colorado home. This represents an increase of almost a million new residents over the state's 1997 population. GROWTH STRAINS NATIVESPECIEs. Growth is placing new stresses on some of the natural features that help to make Colorado so attractive. Many native plant and animal species are particularly sensitive to the effects of growth. As the state's land and water resources are tapped to provide for the needs of Coloradans, plant and wildlife species and their habitats are showing increasing signs of strain. Researchers at Colorado State University estimate that, while populations of most Colorado wildlife species are relatively secure, 47 (6.4 percent of the animals that occur in Colorado) are considered vulnerable. One hundred and forty-one plant species (4.7 percent of the 3,000 plant species that occur in Colorado) are also considered vulnerable. THE FEDERAL ENDANGERED SPECIESACT IN COLORADO. Some of Colorado's native species have declined to the point where they could become extinct. As a result, they have been added to the list of federally protected threatened and endangered species pursuant to the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ESA is frequently characterized as the most powerful environmental protection law in the world due to the extensive regulatory authority it confers upon the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to alter or deny activities that may negatively affect a "listed" species or its habitat. Use of this authority has generated considerable controversy around the United States, due to concerns that federal-level decisions would take private property without just compensation or unacceptably limit state and local land use and natural resource management rights and prerogatives. To ensure that such controversies are kept to a minimum in Colorado, Governor Roy Romer initiated a Memorandum of Agreement Concerning Management of Colorado's Declining Native Species (MOA) in 1995 with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, attached as Appendix C. This MOA commits federal and state agencies to collaborate with local governments, private citizens, businesses, and community groups to protect wildlife and plant species before ESA listing may be required. The MOA also creates a policy framework to address listed species. This policy framework places a premium on collaboration, voluntary action, and constructive partnerships to address the conservation needs of listed species in a manner that minimizes or in some cases eliminates the need to invoke the ESA's substantial regulatory authorities. The MOA emphasizes the use of market-based and other incentive approaches designed to respect private property interests. The intent and promise behind this framework is to avoid the controversy, conflict, and often expensive and time-consuming litigation that have attended ESA-related issues in Native Species Conservation Trust Fund Page 3 Annual Report to the Colorado General Assembly Colorado Department of Natural Resources