By Carolyn Szczepanski

carolyn@dmcityview.com

If it weren't so humiliating, it might be somewhat humorous. After two years of meticulous data collection by dozens of experts across the state, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources approved its first Comprehensive Wildlife Plan last month. And while the in-depth document is nearly 300 pages long, a single sentence sums up the sorry plight for many Iowa species: "In many places in the state, the only habitat that remains is found in road ditches."

As the human population has sprawled across the landscape, from homesteads to strip malls, the animal kingdom has been kicked to the curb. Nowhere was that disregard more evident than earlier this month when the U.S. House passed a measure that would brazenly gut the Federal Endangered Species Act. But while local environmentalists were appalled by votes from Iowa Reps. King, Latham and Nussle to eliminate the legal teeth from the landmark legislation, DNR officials say saving species starts at home. And, if the new wildlife plan is any indication, it will take a determined effort to get Iowa's habitat out of the ditch, and state wildlife back on the road to recovery.

While Iowa hosts 13 species that reside on the federal endangered list, there are also 238 species on Iowa's state-specific list and countless others heading toward that designation. Since the late 1980s, wildlife agencies have been pushing the federal government to dedicate some permanent funding for such species, says DNR's wildlife research supervisor Terry Little. And Uncle Sam tossed them a bone in 2001 with the introduction of State Wildlife Grant Program (SWGP). Incumbent upon every state that took the cash, however, was a mammoth comprehensive plan that the DNR just barely finished before the Oct. 1 deadline this year. And the results - the first comprehensive plan since 1933 - are so striking that officials hope it will loosen state purse strings.

From mammals to dragonflies, the wildlife plan proves multiple human pressures are acting as a "high stress" on hundreds of animal species. Essentially a deferred death sentence, DNR defines high stress as: "If no action is taken, these stresses will cause a widespread degradation of populations resulting in an increased risk of statewide extirpation. Corrective actions should be immediate and widespread." The most immediate corrective action is obvious - with only 2 percent, or 650,000 acres, in Iowa under permanent habitat protection, DNR's goal is to double the amount of habitat by 2030.

But, as Dale Garner, chief of DNR's wildlife bureau, points out, his agency has neither carrot nor stick to turn that strategy into reality. They don't have the power to condemn land to keep a fading species in the realm of the living; all they can do is go hat-in-hand to the private landowners who lord over 94 percent of the state's ground and convince or compensate them to create or maintain vital habitat. But, along with no legal arsenal, Garner hasn't got much in the way of financial firepower, either.

Just for comparison, he points out, Iowa's game species - perceived to be a vital economic asset - are lavished with $30 million from state hunting and angling fees each year. On the other hand, the vast array of wildlife that haven't attained human trophy status receive less than $1 million for their collective protection. And that drop in the funding bucket is certainly no thanks to Iowa policymakers; not a single cent from state coffers is directed to wildlife diversity. The only green these species are getting comes from the income-tax Chickadee Check-off ($150,000 annually) and, starting this year, a small portion of Resources Enhancement And Protection (REAP) license plate fees (a projected $500,000 annually). In other words, it's only public donations that are keeping species from protection poverty, Little says.

Luckily, while state policymakers are content to leave Iowa battling for the dubious distinction of the lowest per-capita spending on environmental programs in the nation, the federal government does chip in some money to target state wildlife that isn't necessarily on the federal endangered list. Most notably, the Landowners Incentive Program is pouring more than $1 million dollars into the state over the next several years to compensate landowners for habitat conversion, while the SWGP adds another $800,000 to $900,000 annually. But, while that may sounds like a lot of money, Garner says, "Start applying that to the ground at $3,000 an acre and it doesn't go far."

After all, a million bucks a year doesn't mean much when you're looking at $5.9 billion over the next 25 years to permanently protect 10 percent of the state's land or $2.3 billion to preserve just 5 percent, according to the wildlife plan. Thanks to the current funding landscape, the best DNR can reasonably hope for is 3.5 percent; and even that paltry level of protection assumes that DNR can get the Legislature to buy into a sales tax earmark that they estimate could bring in $26 million each year. In a state where the political will to protect wildlife is about as widespread as the nearly non-existent prairie, that's far from certain.

So while state environmental groups, like the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club, are calling on their members to urge Harkin and Grassley to rescue the Federal Endangered Species Act from extinction in the U.S. Senate, Little says Iowa's wildlife need capitol champions here at home. Now on it's way to Washington for federal approval, Little says the DNR aims to use the wildlife plan as a lobbying tool in the next state legislative session. But, even with a documented crisis and saving strategy in hand, Garner says, a public push - perhaps not unlike the recent outcry against the assault on the federal laws - will be needed to convince policymakers the critters are worth the cash.

"We're still in denial about the amount of money and effort it will take," Garner says. "And people have to want it." CV

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