The utah wildlife action plan uwap is a 10YEAR plan for the utah division of wildlife resources udwr andconservation partners to align and coordinate programmatic and projectlevel aspects of their…

The U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service awarded a $132,307.69 Formula Grant to the State of Utah, Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) on July 1, 2024. This grant supports the coordination and implementation of the Utah Wildlife Action Plan (UWAP), a 10-year strategic plan to conserve species of greatest conservation need (SGCN) and their habitats in Utah. Key activities include managing SGCN locality data, maintaining a central database of species information, and aligning conservation efforts across UDWR and its partners. This grant, provided under the State Wildlife Grants (CFDA 15.634) program, aims to prevent species from becoming endangered and maintain healthy wildlife populations under state management, thereby supporting Utah's continued economic growth.

The utah wildlife action plan uwap is a 10YEAR plan for the utah division of wildlife resources udwr andconservation partners to align and coordinate programmatic and projectlevel aspects of their planning andimplementation. The uwap s cornerstone are the species in greatest conservation need sgcn in utah. Having a coordinated list of species in need of conservation attention allows all conservation partners in utah to focustheir attention on species truly needing conservation attention. The uwap identifies important habitats for thesgcns so that these habitats can be maintained protected and even expanded. The primary threats to the sgcns are also identified so that conservation partners with authority to address those threats can work towardalleviating and minimizing them. While some of the sgcns in the uwap are species that are already listed asthreatened or endangered under the endangered species act ESA most are not and the goal of the uwap is tomaintain and restore healthy species populations habitats and minimize threats to prevent the need foradditional species listings under the ESA. Over the past 20 years utah has demonstrated a strong conservationethic for its native species through the uwap and provided the conservation track record to keep species off theesa. In fact the U.S. Fish and wildlife service has found that more than 90% of the utah species petitioned forlisting under the ESA have not warranted protection which demonstrates effective state management for thesespecies. Keeping species management under state authority allows for effective management and opportunities forutah to continue to grow economically. This grant supports the coordination of implementation and revision of theuwap. This grant supports much of the data handling needs created by the utah wildlife action plan. The udwr s naturalheritage program unhp manages the udwr locality records for sgcns. The unhp staff continually add new species locality records to our central database as data are received from the udwr biologists and uwap partners.maintaining sgcn locality information is critical to determining the success of the uwap in maintaining healthypopulations of sgcns in utah.