| Land acquisition is not the first priority in most Species Recovery Plans, and yet acquiring Conservation Bank (CB) credits or establishing Conservation Easements (CE) are the two most utilized methods to meet compensatory mitigation requirements for most permits authorizing incidental take. How might a Species Fund be structured and managed to benefit listed species populations? Although habitat loss figures prominently in many listed species declines, for certain species, habitat conservation may be outranked by other population limiting factors. We outline a process for setting up species specific funds to assist in financing established recovery goals already prioritized within Species Recovery Plans. Species-specific challenges surrounding standard compensatory mitigation practices are considered. Since Species Funds are only limited by fund parameters defined at the time of fund establishment, traditional mitigation approaches are not excluded by this process, and this mitigation approach can be used to aggregate funding for larger-scale CB or CE purchases. |