This project provides the required state match for virtually all of Utah's annual allocation of federal State Wildlife Grants. The programs sustained by this project collect, maintain, consume, and distribute a variety of data and information streams for state-designated sensitive species, Species of Greatest Conservation Need, federally-listed T&E species, and some key habitats. These programs are the Utah Natural Heritage Program, WAP project leadership, and the Native Aquatics and Native Terrestrial species programs. Besides working on occurrence data and data gaps, this project also contributes threat abatement capacity for SGCNs and key habitats.

The goal of this project is to prevent the need for species listings under the Endangered Species Act. This goal will be pursued through the following objectives: - Priority threat-abatement actions are implemented -- whether identified in the 2015 WAP, or in other management plans as they pertain to SGCNs and key habitats. - Utah's SGCN species are inventoried, monitored, and managed. - Populations of regional SGCN species are maintained and enhanced. - Regional sensitive species databases are maintained, accessible, and utilized. - Habitat management guidelines are developed as needed for key species based on existing literature, ongoing UDWR studies, and project monitoring results.

This project forms the foundation of UDWR's efforts to implement the 2015 Wildlife Action Plan. Without it, most - perhaps all - of the other WAP implementation efforts such as those of the Watershed Restoration Initiative as well as those of the partners listed below, would wither and perhaps cease in short order. Those other efforts now contribute more direct and in-kind funding to WAP implementation than ESMF and State Wildlife Grants combined. The staff funded by this project are also absolutely critical to implementation and periodic revision of several Species Recovery Implementation Plans, a pair of Habitat Conservation Plans, a host of Conservation Agreements and Strategies, and several other state species management plans such as those for Utah prairie dog, the bats of Utah, and greater sage-grouse. Most of the objectives and actions listed in those other plans also cross-reference easily with the objectives and actions enumerated in the WAP. Finally, staff funded by this project also participate in the review, revision, and implementation of diverse partners' plans, such as Resource Management Plans and Forest Plans.

The Utah Natural Heritage Program is the repository of, and the portal for requesting, sensitive species point occurrence data. It manages Government Records Access and Management Act compliance for these data in relations between state agencies as well as with academia, industry, and the public. UNHP helps other UDWR programs comply with GRAMA by processing external requests for sensitive species data. The Native Aquatics and Terrestrial species programs enable effective compliance with the state Sensitive Species Rule. The Native Aquatics program is an important component of effective Clean Water Act compliance by virtue of its role in Stream Alteration Permit application review, as well as its role in developing applications for such permits made by UDWR for stream habitat restoration projects. All work conducted with federally-listed species will be done in full compliance with Endangered Species Act provisions.

Conservation actions for SGCN species and key habitats that will be accomplished under this proposal can roughly be categorized as on-the-ground work, impact analysis, inventory/monitoring, research, education, data management, coordination, and planning. Selected, but by no means exhaustive, examples of work expected this year follow: - Impact analysis: Work with UDWR biologists, federal land managers, and others to recognize and make recommendations to avoid/minimize/mitigate impacts to wildlife from development proposals; review all Watershed Restoration Initiative habitat-project proposals; help create distribution and/or habitat maps for species for use in the impact analysis process; review various permit requests; respond to any ESA listing petitions. - Inventory/monitoring: Work to identify species' occurrences, population status, and response to threats and management actions; design, analyze, synthesize, and supervise field projects. - Research: Address questions vital to management. We have internal projects, we work with local and distant universities, and we participate in regional- or national-scale efforts. - Education/outreach/dissemination: Citizen science efforts, public lectures, and field experiences; bird and nature festivals; manuscript preparation for peer-reviewed scientific journals; social media posts. Serve as the regional experts for all nongame-related questions and media requests. - Data management, coordination, and planning: WAP implementation coordination and planning; Species Status Assessment (SSA) data submission, participation, and review; Conservation Action Planning (CAP) for species and areas; UDWR strategic plan; coordination and communication with federal land management biologists; participation in many initiatives, teams, and working groups including WRI, candidate species working groups, species-specific recovery teams, etc; discovering, creating, entering, proofing, approving, and sharing species and habitat data. For many of the listed activities, we seek additional funding through ESMF and other state, federal, and private sources. Those funds are generally for seasonal field costs such as technicians, vehicles, supplies and materials, and other implementation costs. However, without this essential grant, we would lack the capacity to carry out most, if not all, of the duties of the Native Aquatic and Terrestrial Wildlife Conservation Programs.

Species monitoring -- whether annual, periodic, or occasional -- is a key ongoing activity of this proposal. Information on SGCN population status, and response to conservation actions, is vital to guide management and inform Species Status Assessments. Methods and timelines vary by species. All results will however be incorporated into periodic status and threat assessments for all SGCNs, which will constitute the cumulative monitoring for all SGCNs statewide, as well as provide some indication of program effectiveness.

An extraordinarily diverse set of partners work with the employees funded by this project. Among the federal partners are: NPS, USFWS, BLM, USFS, NRCS, USACE, and DoD. Among the state partners are DEQ, UDAF, UDOT, and several of the sister divisions within the DNT, most notably UGS. Besides executive-branch agencies, there are various universities (BYU, USU, UofU, UVU, SUU, etc) and a plethora of NGOs such as -- but not limited to -- Trout Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, HawkWatch International, Hogle Zoo, and Tracey Aviary.

The most important next step is to secure reliable long-term funding for the positions and activities sustained by this project. Completing that step will liberate $700,000 of ESMF money annually for other projects, as well as remove a constant source of strain and friction on individual staff and relationships. Barring secure funding, the long-term success and stability of this project will be in perpetual suspense.

07/01/2020

06/30/2021

2021

The four programs sustained by this project collect, maintain, consume, and distribute a variety of data streams and data products for most Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCNs) and some key habitats. These programs are 1) Utah Natural Heritage, 2) Wildlife Action Plan coordination, 3) Native Aquatics, and 4) Native Terrestrials. Besides collecting and analyzing data to fill crucial data gaps and assess status and trends, this project also contributes a substantial amount of threat abatement for SGCNs and key habitats, in the forms of project proposal development, collaboration, and execution, as well as impact analysis and review. In conclusion, this project constitutes the foundation of virtually all of Utah's WAP implementation efforts. It is absolutely essential, as it provides the entire required 50% match for the current federal WAP implementation funding, State Wildlife Grants.

The numerous and diverse FY21 accomplishments of this ongoing project are enumerated in the reports uploaded to this projects under documents. : - some longstanding information-technology deficiencies are being remedied (e.g., species distribution models for select SGCNs) - institutional capacity for meeting some difficult challenges is increasing (e.g., statewide avian monitoring, beaver repatriation, in-stream flows) - a number of long-standing species monitoring and management projects are being sustained - some long-neglected taxa are getting more attention (e.g., herps, small mammals, mollusks) - in some regions, species managers are partnering enthusiastically and successfully with habitat managers to overcome longstanding problems (e.g., managing emergent marsh vegetation with prescribed fire) - despite the non-ideal funding model, the disparate programs formerly known as "the nongame section" are all still alive, and adapting

Continue funding this project annually, until another reliable means of funding it is attained. But, increase oversight of individual species programs to increase the rate of conversion of activity and data into meaningful information and action. Demand better answers to the questions "Are we making satisfactory progress? If not, why not, and what should be done?" Completed for the year. To continue, adapting as needed and as possible, in perpetuity.