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ST. GEORGE — With an extra million dollars allocated to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources' Endangered Species Mitigation Fund, how will southern Utah benefit?
In May, the division allocated $4.4 million to the fund for the current fiscal year, a temporary seven-figure boost from the typical budget, said Paul Thompson, an assistant habitat section chief who administers the Endangered Species Mitigation Fund and the Utah Wildlife Action Plan.
"It's kind of a big year for us," he said. "Where most years, it's a little harder even to allocate because we have always had more projects than we had funding. But with $4.4 instead of $3.4 (million), we were able to stretch that and fund a lot more projects this year."
Created in 1997, the Endangered Species Mitigation Fund directs funds to protect, conserve and recover "species of greatest conservation need, as identified in the Utah Wildlife Action Plan," according to a news release issued by the division.
The fund serves two purposes — to improve the status of threatened or endangered species or to delist them if possible and to conserve species that need attention but are not yet federally protected. The Division of Wildlife Resources works with various partners to gather information on their status, habitat and other data in case they become candidates for listing, Thompson said.
