Malpai Borderlands FY09

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San Bernardino NWR, Leslie Canyon NWR, and surrounding lands protected by the Cooperator provide a critical role in maintaining a sanctuary for at least 36 plant and wildlife species of special concern (federal and/or state listed species). Cooperative efforts between the Service and environmentally sensitive private landowners have previously provided opportunities to secure, improve, and restore a variety of fish and wildlife habitats, conduct scientific monitoring, and introduce and maintain self-sustaining populations of fish and wildlife. An approved multi-species Habitat Conservation Plan, and several approved Safe Harbor Agreements are currently in effect on these private lands, providing further opportunities to recover several federally-listed threatened and endangered species. This specific Challenge Cost Share Project will help accelerate fish and wildlife habitat restoration processes within the Malpai Borderlands Group Project Area by further enhancing wetlands, grasslands, and crucial wildlife corridors. Previously, erosion and loss of wetland and grassland habitats in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico have been addressed by the Cooperator through a variety of activities managed to prevent stream head-cutting, allow water catchments, provide increased soil saturation and infiltration, and promote riparian corridors. Temporary and permanent water tanks require initial construction to catch and hold water, and then require regular maintenance to remove accumulated silt that limits the volume of water that tanks can hold and therefore limits the length of time the tanks benefit wildlife populations. Accelerated erosion and stream channel head-cutting require the initial installation of erosion control gabions (check dams), and then require regular repair to gabions that have been damaged or circumvented which limit their effectiveness in helping hold soil moisture. Providing opportunities for precipitation to remain on the landscape rather than running off as floodwater enhances soil saturation and infiltration, allows grassland stabilization, and helps replenish the shallow aquifer. Initial and recurring control of mesquite, acacia, and other potentially invasive perennial woody plants that have taken over grassland sites and wetland margins is necessary to ensure the integrity of grasslands and the survivability and productivity by many native wildlife species. This project will provide cost share funding to construct, restore, and seal wetlands; provide effective labor, equipment, and materials to construct and repair erosion control gabions and check dams; provide opportunities to fund the removal of perennial woody vegetation through the use of fire, mechanical means, or by other methods to enhance the productivity of wetlands and native grasslands, and assist in the administration and monitoring of these multiple habitat restoration projects.

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