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Show Joint Effort Formed To Aid Utah Wildlife Program The Bureau of Land Management and the Utah Division of Wildlife (Resources have announced an agreement to jointly plan and carry out wildlife habitat conservation and restoration programs on national resource lands in Utah. DIVISION Director John E. Phelps and Paul L. Howard, Utah BLM state director, said the agreement was developed to implement Public Law 93-452. The Law, known as the Sikes Act, calls for development develop-ment by BLM, in cooperation with states, of comprehensive plans and programs for rehabilitation and conservation conserva-tion of. wildlife habitat. PHELPS SAID the Sikes Act holds great potential for improving the habitat upon . which wildlife depends, but funding must now be provided provid-ed by Congress to recognize the Act's potential. Howard noted that BLM administers nearly 22 million acres of national resource lands in the Beehive State which support a great variety of wildlife, including threatened threa-tened species, big game, upland game, fish and a myriad of nongame species. HOWARD SAID wildlife habitat plans developed under the new agreement will be consistent with BLM's existing exist-ing planning system. The states are responsible for resident wildlife within their borders, but much key habitat is under the jurisdiction jurisdic-tion of federal agencies such as BLM, so cooperative management is necessary in order to be effective. |