Page 33 - 2023MayJun

The Texas horned lizard JENA DONNELL/ODWC
was not eligible for direct

conservation funding until
the creation of the State
Wildlife Grant Program .
Surveys of the lizards,

including an ongoing project
funded in 2019 and led by the
University of Oklahoma, have
increased knowledge about

where the species can be
found in Oklahoma and the
status of the species .

lated products with states’ hunting and fishing license sales to help pay for the
conservation of wild birds, mammals, fish, and their habitats.
Species other than birds, mammals, and fish have indirectly benefited from
work underwritten by the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program for
decades but weren’t the focus of a direct funding program until the early 2000s,
when the State Wildlife Grant Program was approved
by Congress. This relatively new program provides fed-
eral reimbursement grants, distributed by the U.S. Fish JENA DONNELL/ODWC
and Wildlife Service, to state fish and wildlife agencies
to enhance species in greatest need of additional con-
servation attention.
To be eligible for the funding, the Wildlife
Department created a Comprehensive Wildlife
Conservation Strategy that identifies more than 300
species of greatest conservation need, including not
only the traditional birds, mammals, and fish, but also
amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates. Nearly half of
the species approved for State Wildlife Grant Program
funding could not be directly addressed by the earlier
grant program.
A state wildlife grant project funded in 2011, led by the University of Tulsa,
“The State Wildlife Grant Program is dedicated to focused in part on the distribution and diversity of Oklahoma salamanders.
collecting data and lets us focus on the state’s species The resulting surveys were paired with work conducted in Missouri and led to
withdrawal of a petition urging the federal government to list the species as
of greatest conservation need,” Kuklinski said. “We can threatened or endangered.

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