9415

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9415
• Author: Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
• Title: Species Conservation Trust Fund ‎(HB 98-1006)‎\
• USFW Year: 1999.
• Copyright Material: NO

other regions of the country, while getting on with protecting the state's wildlife and plant
resources.
COLORADO'S TRADITION OFPRAGMA TIC, EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS TO NATIVESPECIES
CONSERVATION CHALLENGES. The MOA builds upon a decade of hard work in Colorado to
develop innovative solutions to ESA implementation problems that protect species and
their habitats while rendering the regulatory effects of the ESA as unobtrusive as possible.
Cooperative species recovery and habitat protection programs are in place to address the
effects of water development in the Upper Colorado, San Juan and Platte River Basins
while allowing water management and development activities to proceed under state law.
A broad-based conservation planning effort is also taking shape for the Preble's meadow
jumping mouse, a species only recently added to the federal ESA list. The goals of this
effort - protect the mouse and its habitat while reducing or removing burdensome
regulations under the ESA - are similar to those of the basin-wide cooperative recovery
programs.
Colorado also has a growing tradition of early action aimed at keeping species from having
to be listed. In recent years, the Colorado Division of Wildlife has initiated efforts or
entered into partnerships to conserve the boreal toad, several fish species native to the
South Platte and Arkansas Rivers, the Colorado River cutthroat trout, the lesser prairie
chicken, the plains sharp-tail grouse, the Gunnison sage grouse, the mountain plover, the
Rio Grande sucker, the wood frog, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, the Canadian lynx, and
the wolverine. The activities of innumerable private land trusts, ranchers and farmers,
water districts, and others also have aided in protecting species and their habitats.
THE SPECIES CONSERVATION TRUST FUND MUST BEADEQUATELY CAPITALIZED IF
COLORADO'S COORDINATED EFFORT TO PROTECT NATIVE SPECIES IS TO BE SUCCESSFUL.
The General Assembly's initial appropriation of $10 million into the Species Conservation
Trust Fund will contribute in a significant and meaningful way to addressing the needs of
several -species while minimizing the regulatory burdens Coloradans otherwise would face.
This report, and the accompanying Species Eligibility List, is intended to provide a
blueprint for making expenditures from the Fund in FY 1999-2000.
However, a fund capitalization of $10 million is insufficient to address all the demands for
an effective, coordinated approach in Colorado to native species conservation over the
long-term. Even if the Fund were treated as an annuity, where the Fund balance is reduced
progressively to zero over a 15 year time frame, the total value of all expenditures from the
Fund would be approximately $14.69 million. This" is well short of the State of Colorado's
$28-30 million share over the next 15 years of the costs for the Upper Colorado, San Juan,
and Platte River Basin programs alone, not to mention costs that may be associated with
other species protection and recovery efforts.
To properly address the full range of protection and recovery efforts for both listed and
unlisted species, the Department of Natural Resources estimates the Fund should be
capitalized at a total value of $24.5 million. Assuming the Fund is managed as an annuity
Native Species Conservation Trust Fund Page 4
Annual Report to the Colorado General Assembly
Colorado Department of Natural Resources