Success of Endangered Species Fund in Question

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) It's hard to tell if Utah's fund to prevent endangered species is working. That's the conclusion of a legislative audit which recommends better evaluation criteria for the Endangered Species Mitigation Fund. Department of Natural Resources Director Mike Styler welcomes the feedback, but says proof of the funds success is obvious -- since it was created in 1998, no new creatures have been added to the list from Utah, despite several petitions.

Styler also cautions lawmakers inclined to discount the importance of the several million dollars they allocate to the fund each year. That money is divvied out to local agencies to buy up land and implement protection programs to keep at-risk species of fish and wildlife of the endangered list.

Rural legislators are skeptical - claiming the state wastes valuable resources protecting animals many consider pests, such as the Utah prairie dog. Since 1998, the Endangered Specie Mitigation Fund can be credited with keeping the minnow-like Least Chub fish and the Columbia Spotted Frog off the Federal Endangered Species List.

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