The purpose of this financial assistance award is to establish a working partnership between the service and the UTE mountain UTE tribe that supports conservation of sagebrush habitats in southwestern…

This $206,346 Cooperative Agreement awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Partners for Fish and Wildlife (CFDA 15.631) program establishes a partnership with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe to support the conservation of 6,992 acres of sagebrush and mesic meadow habitat in southwestern Colorado. The Tribe will implement habitat improvements and management through grazing management, wet meadow restoration, and spring development. The project aims to benefit federal trust species including the threatened Gunnison sage-grouse, as well as sagebrush-dependent migratory birds, pollinators, and other wildlife. The award period runs from January 20, 2025 through September 30, 2027.

The purpose of this financial assistance award is to establish a working partnership between the service and the UTE mountain UTE tribe that supports conservation of sagebrush habitats in southwestern colorado. The tribe will implement habitat improvement and management across 116 acres of mesic meadow habitat and 6,876 acres of sagebrush habitat through grazing management, wet meadow restoration and conservation, and spring development. This project will implement components of a plan that the umut developed with the natural resources conservation service (NRCS) through the environmental quality incentives program (EQIP). Overall, the purpose of this project is to take a wholistic approach by pairing grazing management with wet meadow restoration. While umut will be responsible for implementing all aspects of this project, USFWS partners for fish and wildlife (PFW), upper gunnison river water conservation district (UGRWCD), colorado parks and wildlife (CPW), bird conservancy of the rockies (BCR) and gunnison county are significant partners in the development and delivery of the project. All work will occur within a high priority conservation focus areas that will contribute towards meeting population and habitat objectives identified in the services FY 20222026 mountain-prairie region strategic plan for the partners for fish and wildlife program. In addition, this project will benefit, (1) federal trust species including the federally threatened gunnison sage-grouse (2) sagebrush obligate migratory birds (3) pollinators (4) other wildlife and (5) working lands.