Annual Review

FY 2005

The following review is for the 2005 calendar year. At the beginning of 2005, there were 19 permanent and 5 seasonal employees. Over the year we added 4 permanent staff, and now have 23 permanent employees. The total number of projects increased slightly from 35 to 41, and the annual personnel and operating budget is now >$1 million. Many of the reports associated with projects can be found online or reports can be requested as hardcopy.

The Botany program continues to focus on gathering and managing information on the distribution and abundance of rare plants supported by state and federal partners. Other botany projects include conservation planning and status reviews, as well as developing and updating the botany database. Zoology has completed the Idaho Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CWCS) and is now moving into implementation. Central to implementing CWCS is providing information and guidance for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and US Forest Service (USFS) in their land use planning efforts. A major effort within this program is development and maintenance of the Animal Conservation Database which now consists of >40,000 records and support by the Idaho Nongame Fund and State Wildlife Grants. The Plant Community Ecology program continues to work on characterizing upland plant associations and landscape classification with private landowners, NatureServe, and the USFS. This information is central to developing standard measures of statewide habitats. Wetland Conservation projects focus on designating sites of high biodiversity with support from the US Environmental Protection Agency and prioritizing wetlands for statewide conservation actions for the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. Last, data managers in each program continue to develop and maintain specifications for Biotics databases consistent with the applications of partners such as NatureServe, BLM, and US Fish and Wildlife Service. As a result, we provided >250 requests for project-specific at-risk species distribution and abundance data; as well as send statewide exports to 16 state and federal agency cooperators.

The IDCDC has no dedicated source of funding. As a result, we are largely dependent upon the interest and support of a diverse group of partners. We have a full schedule of projects planned for 2006 and look forward to working with our partners to meet the challenge of connecting science with conservation for more informed decisions about the Idaho's biodiversity.