HB 98-1006 Documents Related to the Passage 1998

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H. B. 98 -1006 - Native Species Conservation - $24.5 million - GF This bill establishes a Species Conservation Trust Fund, and creates a process by which projects that conserve species in accordance with agreements arising under the federal ESA, can be approved and receive allocations from the fund. It provides for review and approval of the annual allocation by the General Assembly and makes an appropriation. Given that the recovery of threatened and endangered species is a long term endeavor, the bill contemplates providing initial capitalization of the Fund which, when combined with the interest that the Fund will earn, may be adequate to meet the highest priority needs of Colorado's species conservation efforts. Note: The bill as introduced called for an annual appropriation. As amended in House Ag, the bill now calls for the initial capitalization method The fiscal note has been amended to reflect this change. The Department believes the following programs could be eligible to receive funding under this bill. Platte River Recovery Program - $1,500,000 per year for 13 years. These are program costs (primarily capital activities) to be incurred to implement the Agreement cited above. This annual funding obligation does not begin until after the three-year planning period mentioned above in Decision Item 43 is completed. • Colorado /San Juan Rivers Recovery Program - $1,000,000 per year for 9 years. This is the current estimate of costs needed to complete the work to recover the Colorado River Endangered Fishes. The majority of these funds are for capital projects. These two projects would require an initial capitalization of $17.6 million dollars. Other projects and activities addressing other species which may be on either the federal or state threatened or endangered species lists or may become so listed in the future. Several Colorado species have populations in serious decline. It is highly likely these species could be listed under the federal ESA if preventative action designed to enhance and maintain populations is not undertaken. Capitalizing the Species Conservation Trust Fund with an additional $6.9 million over the $17.6 million required for the Basin recovery efforts described above, would provide minimum resources necessary to address these species. It should be noted that this amount is not the total that will be needed to recover all species in Colorado, but is an estimated amount necessary to begin work on the species with completed or soon to be completed recovery programs. This would result in a total capitalization requirement of $ 24.5 million The expenditures under HB 1006 do not duplicate the expenditures in Decision Item #3. If you have any questions please, call Bill Daley, at the Department of Natural Resources, 866 -4899. NOTE; Both of these requests are in addition to the Division of Wildlife Species Conservation line items in the long bill which totaled $ 2,419,021 in FY 97 -98. None of these funds have been expended on the South Platte Cooperative Agreement. I : \deb \p l atte \b i l lrgst