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Appendix <br />State Agency Roles <br />A. Wildlife Management <br />The Division of Wildlife (DOW) within the Department of Natural <br />Resources is the state agency with the legislative responsibility <br />to "... preserve, protect, and enhance the wildlife resources of <br />the state." This mandate applies to all wildlife species, <br />including those that are valued for sporting purposes (i.e., <br />deer, elk, trout and bass) as well as those that are considered <br />nongame, such as frogs, minnows, songbirds, and raptors. DOW <br />works with an eight member Wildlife Commission which has policy <br />and regulation- setting responsibilities. The Wildlife Commission <br />may also designate species as state threatened or endangered. <br />The diversity of aquatic and terrestrial habitat in Colorado <br />supports 890 wildlife species or subspecies. Wildlife species <br />managed by DOW include 414 birds, 195 crustaceans, 126 mammals, <br />53 fish, 47 reptiles, 38 mollusks, and 17 amphibians. Eighty -six <br />percent of these species are nongame. DOW is currently engaged <br />in (1) developing a ranking process to refine status and trends <br />of native wildlife; and (2) developing community -level (versus <br />single- species) inventory protocols for monitoring nongame <br />wildlife through contracts ($106,000) with National Ecology <br />Research Laboratory and Fishery and Wildlife Biology Department <br />staff at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. <br />These projects are intended to enable the Division to better <br />monitor the majority of the wildlife resource, identify species <br />in decline, and initiate enhancement measures prior to <br />imperatives for federal listing protection. The Division has <br />directed almost $1.8 million of GO Colorado lottery funding <br />toward wildlife protection projects that include: reptile and <br />amphibian wildlife inventories; aquatic wildlife database <br />development; design of a native aquatic wildlife propagation <br />facility; inventory of bats in abandoned mines; and conservation <br />of songbirds. The Division is near completion of a $195,000 <br />field inventory of native fishes in the eastern plains portions <br />of the South Platte, Arkansas, and Republican river basins. <br />Twenty -six species are listed as threatened or endangered in <br />Colorado, of which 11 are state - listed only and 15 are both <br />federally and state listed. Species become state - listed by <br />decision of the Wildlife Commission. Recovery plans have been <br />prepared for all state - listed wildlife species and 11 of the 15 <br />federally- listed wildlife species. DOW recovery activities have <br />resulted in the downlisting.of the bald eagle and American <br />peregrine falcon from endangered to threatened in Colorado, and <br />almost complete recovery and delisting of the greenback cutthroat <br />11 <br />