2003 Environmental Excellence Awards

Shortgrass Prairie System

CDOT's Shortgrass Prairie Initiative emerged from a shared vision that public transportation agencies can use funds for environmental mitigation more effectively while making a significant contribution to recovery of declining ecosystems. Many native species that inhabit North America's imperiled shortgrass prairie ecosystem are currently listed as threatened, endangered, proposed, or candidate species under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). This initiative seeks to conserve from 15,000 to 50,000 acres of Colorado's shortgrass prairie habitat, via easements and management agreements in perpetuity, to mitigate for environmental impacts from proposed transportation projects over the next 20 years. The program is designed to satisfy current and future ESA Section 7 consultation requirements for a range of listed and non-listed species, thus avoiding future project and process delays while protecting and enhancing the environment. By contributing to a multi-species recovery effort in an integrated and comprehensive manner, the partners will promote the recovery of listed species, help prevent listing of additional species, use public funds more efficiently, improve the project development process, and offset permanent habitat loss through large scale habitat protection.