Bastrop, Tx–In a meeting Tuesday county commissioners approved a grant incentive program to aid private land owners in establishing new populations of the endangered Houston toad or boosting existing breeding groups.
The $25,000 grant program will be funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the next two years and administered by Bastrop County’s existing Lost Pines Habitat Conservation Program. The 124,000-acre Lost Pines area of the county is home to the largest known population of the small, reclusive amphibians in the US. The Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for administration of the federal Endangered Species Act.
Roxanne Hernandez, who heads the county habitat conservation program, said some grant funding will be available for land owners who undertake measures to boost current toad populations or create new breeding sites. The county will also be responsible for monitoring the success of the new efforts for up to 10 years, she said.
Previously a similar incentive program was operated under an agreement between the Fish and Wildlife Service and Environmental Defense, a national environmental protection organization.