|
The Cold Blooded NewsThe Newsletter of the Colorado Herpetological SocietyVolume 28, Number 2; February, 2001 |
More than 54,070 Coloradans donated $540,267 to help nongame, threatened and endangered species through the nongame income tax checkoff on the state income tax form last year. And Colorado Division of Wildlife biologists are hoping for more of the same this year.
The Nongame Wildlife Fund checkoff box is located on line 44 of the Colorado state income tax form for 2000. The donation itself is tax deductible.
"Colorado was the first state to implement a checkoff for T-and-E species," said Gary Skiba, head of the Division of Wildlife's species conservation section. "Over the years, taxpayer donations have made the difference in whether we lose species or not. We have not had species go extinct in this state, in a large measure, because of their donations."
Since the program's inception in 1977, hundreds of thousands of Colorado taxpayers have used the checkoff to donate more than $10.5 million toward efforts that aid threatened, endangered and nongame wildlife - the 750 species of animals and fish that are neither hunted nor fished. The results of those donations have been pretty dramatic:
Once extirpated in the state, river otters were reintroduced to Colorado with the aid of checkoff donations. Today more than 100 otters are found in Rocky Mountain National Park and in the Piedra and Dolores rivers.
The state fish, the greenback cutthroat trout, was thought to be extinct in Colorado by 1937. Small populations of the fish were discovered in Front Range drainages in the late 1960s. With the aid of checkoff money, more than 22 populations of greenbacks have been established in the Arkansas and South Platte River drainages. In fact, the species has recovered well enough to allow some catch and release fishing opportunities for anglers.
Ditto the greater prairie chicken. Victims of the dust bowl environment of the l930s, only about 600 greater prairie chickens remained in eastern Colorado by 1973. An effort by local farmers and ranchers combined with funding for transplanting birds from the nongame checkoff resulted in restoration of the species. Division of Wildlife biologists now estimate that between 10,000 and 15,000 of the birds reside in northeastern Colorado. With the aid of donations to the checkoff, the birds were removed from the state's endangered species list two years ago.
Today, wildlife biologists are using tax checkoff donations to fund recovery efforts on behalf of boreal toads, black-footed ferrets, swift fox, least terns, piping plovers and dozens of other species.
Why bother? "Because wildlife is a barometer of our environment," Skiba said. "If something in our environment is bad for wildlife, ultimately it will be bad for humans as well. In helping threatened and endangered species, we're actually helping ourselves."
More information on the nongame income tax checkoff is available from the Colorado Division of Wildlife at (303) 297-1192.
|
Next Article: Grouse, Prairie Dog, Boreal Toads, Lynx Top Species Conservation Efforts |
|
Previous Article: Adders And Grass Snakes in and Around Alice Holt Forest, North East Hampshire, U.K. |
|
Return to Cold Blooded News Page |
Return to CHS Home Page |