The Nature Conservancy and Colorado Department of Transportation Preserve Imperiled Prairie and "At Risk" Species
First Transaction in Model Partnership Completed
Boulder, Colorado—February 3, 2005—The Nature Conservancy and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) completed the first of three voluntary land preservation agreements designed to protect tens of thousands of acres of Colorado’s shortgrass prairie today. The agreement is part of the Shortgrass Prairie Initiative, a joint effort to offset habitat loss caused by future transportation improvements while safeguarding large blocks of shortgrass prairie, home to a number of imperiled species.
“This initiative emerged from a shared vision that public transportation agencies can more effectively use environmental mitigation dollars to recover declining ecosystems,” said Charles Bedford, Director of the Nature Conservancy of Colorado. CDOT is directing funding now to recover and preserve critical habitat outside of the state’s major transportation corridors and in return will be able to conduct more efficient and less expensive transportation improvements over the next 20 years.
The first voluntary land preservation agreement protects approximately 2,400 acres west of Grover and adjacent to the Pawnee National Grasslands. Under the terms of the agreement the Conservancy will work with landowners to ensure the preservation of the prairie and the continuance of traditional uses of the land.
Protection of the shortgrass prairie will help protect certain species of wildlife determined to be “at risk” of extinction by the U.S. fish and Wildlife Service as well as other species including the mountain plover, burrowing owl, swift fox, ferruginous hawk and McCown’s Longspur. CDOT saw an opportunity to protect tens of thousands of acres of shortgrass prairie and reduce compliance costs by planning ahead.
“This is just one example of CDOT’s commitment to be a responsible steward of the environment,” said CDOT Executive Director Tom Norton. “Individual project mitigation can be costly and not nearly as effective. This agreement allows us to make the best use of limited taxpayer dollars. We’re able to build and maintain our roads efficiently while making a meaningful contribution to Colorado’s environment.”
“I see this partnership as one of our best opportunities to work in collaboration with local ranching families and public agencies to take a proactive approach to conserving Colorado’s important grasslands for future generations,” said Greg Gamble, Eastern Colorado Program Director of The Nature Conservancy.”
Grasslands are considered to be one of the most imperiled habitat types in North America and worldwide. Only about 40 percent of Colorado’s short grass prairie still remains and much of it has been degraded due to fragmentation. Grassland birds that inhabit the prairie have shown steeper, more consistent decline than any other group of vertebrate animals in North America.
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