Recovery Credits Trading: Making Wildlife Habitat Profitable for Landowners

From our Rocky Mountain Ecologist

Posted: 21-Jun-2007; Updated: 24-Sep-2007

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Ted Toombs, Ecologist
Center for Conservation Incentives
(Photo: Ann Karpinski)

Even in the Rocky Mountain West, where much land is publicly owned, endangered species rely heavily on private lands. Many mitigation systems for endangered species habitat loss do little to further species recovery or to persuade individual agricultural producers to help the effort. Increasingly, the West is turning to market-based incentives to encourage private landowners to restore habitat on their land.

That’s true for the federally threatened Utah prairie dog, which has made little progress toward recovery since being listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1973. The current recovery plan emphasizes recovery on public lands, yet about 75% of the population is on private lands managed by farmers and ranchers. New approaches are needed to involve these landowners in UPD recovery.

Recent efforts by Environmental Defense and others have shown that regulatory and financial incentives through Safe Harbor and Farm Bill programs encourage producers to join recovery efforts, even for a species like the Utah prairie dog that many consider an agricultural pest. Our Rocky Mountain Regional Office will build on this momentum by creating a market-based recovery credits system for the UPD, using a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant.

The credit system will significantly advance the UPD’s recovery prospects by making it possible for private agricultural producers to turn habitat that they restore into an economic asset. A relatively simple market-based system will allow them to submit competitive bids for the work they propose and its cost. Landowners will be aware upfront of the criteria by which their offers will be evaluated, and an independent entity under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oversight will determine how many credits a landowner earns based on the quality, extent, permanence and landscape context of the proposed work. Landowners can submit bids and enter agreements for cost-share of management practices, rental payments, permanent easements or any combination thereof. The species benefits from more landowners actively restoring habitat in areas of most benefit to it.

The sale of these credits by landowners provides a straightforward mechanism for those who need to purchase credits (for example, developers), either for immediate, tangible mitigation needs or for future potential mitigation needs.

Utah prairie dog
(Photo: Copyright Kristi DuBois)

The Golden-cheeked Warbler Recovery Credit System in Texas demonstrates how credit trading can work. A stakeholder team that included staff from government agencies, Environmental Defense’s Austin office and producer groups created this system in 2006 to meet Fort Hood’s need to mitigate potential habitat loss from Army activities and to advance the federally endangered warbler’s recovery. The Army now purchases habitat credits from area landowners who improve and manage habitat on their land and then uses those credits as it proceeds with its activities. The endangered warbler benefits from increased management activities that address its specific habitat needs.

Along with staff from Environmental Defense, Utah Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Utah Farm Bureau and the Utah Department of Natural Resources, I recently met with the team that created the Fort Hood system and viewed its positive results. We will work closely with them as we develop the Utah prairie dog recovery credit trading system.

Ted Toombs
Ecologist
Center for Conservation Incentives
Environmental Defense