Some 18 recent graduates of an urban pollinator habitat-restoration program in Boulder got grants from the Endangered Species Coalition to put more native flowering plants in the ground.

Colorado's native pollinators can only travel a few hundred feet before they need to find a place to land and refuel - with water, nectar and pollen.

City of Boulder urban biodiversity program founder and Cool Boulder lead Andrea Montoya said graduates also are trained to convince their friends and neighbors to join a growing national movement to create more pollinator pathways.

"But when you multiply that - by having yard after yard connected to community spaces, connected to another yard," said Montoya, "and you've built this chain of places that pollinators can visit. That is the key to their survival."

Bees and other pollinators are considered keystone species for entire ecosystems, and contribute to the direct production of up to $577 billion worth of food every year. Pollinator populations are in decline, largely due to loss of habitat to humans, the use of insecticides, and climate change.

Montoya said she sees Colorado's urban lawns, which add zero nutrient value to pollinators, as prime targets for habitat restoration.

Dillon Hanson-Ahumada is the Southern Rockies field representative for the Endangered Species Coalition. He said anyone can get involved in restoring pollinator habitat, and points to resources available at 'endangered.org/pollinator-protectors.'

"Every pollinator plant counts," said Hanson-Ahumada. "Every small habitat area counts. You don't have to have acres and acres. If anything it can be a couple of plants that you plant on the side of your house."

Montoya developed the program curriculum for the climate initiative Cool Boulder. She said after she retired her lawnmower, and replaced grass with native plants, her water bill dropped by 75%.

She said native plants, pollinators, insects and microorganisms underground help maintain soil health - and can play a role in mitigating climate change.

"Native plants form a relationship below ground with native microorganisms that support these plants," said Montoya. "These plants are then able to sequester 150% more carbon than a non-native plant."

Two state agencies have teamed up to make safer wildlife migration a priority in Utah.

The Utah Wildlife Migration Initiative relies heavily on GPS tracking data received from mammals, birds and fish, which gives coordinators a good picture of where animals are spending time, the routes they take, and areas where safe migration routes are needed.

It is a joint project of the state's Division of Wildlife Resources and Department of Transportation.

Blair Stringham, wildlife migration initiative coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said they have now completed more than a hundred projects, and for them to be effective, they have to align with animals' tendencies and behaviors.

"Some of the really cool things we have done though, we've been able to install overpasses, which are essentially bridges going over roadways so animals can move back and forth," Stringham explained. "They've been really successful, with a lot of different animal species."

Stringham pointed out they have also been able to install underpasses, as well as fencing projects to keep wildlife off roads. They have even found ways to help fish move from one stretch of river to other tributaries if they were cut off by roadways.

Stringham emphasized helping animals migrate can save their lives in the process. Even so, about 4,900 deer were killed last year due to vehicle collisions. Stringham acknowledged many people do not realize the material damage which results from these accidents can add up quickly. He added keeping wildlife off the roads keeps people safer, too, and the evidence shows the projects are helping.

"We tend to see a huge improvement in the number of collisions with wildlife when we do these kinds of projects," Stringham observed. "We've seen anywhere from 75% to 90% success on most of these."

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources recently released an app, called the "Utah Roadkill Reporter." It allows anyone to report animals killed on the road as they come across them. Stringham stated it helps contractors locate and remove carcasses, and the data is also used to plan future projects to help prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions.

Migrating wildlife can struggle with the extensive fencing throughout the West, and a new study is filling in the gaps on where these fences are in southwest Montana.

Simon Buzzard, senior coordinator of wildlife connectivity for the National Wildlife Federation and the report's lead author, said the variety of wildlife in the region is extensive, from large mammals such as pronghorn, mule deer and grizzly bears, to ground-nesting birds such as sage grouse.

"This host of species that migrate between public lands and private lands, across elevation changes and across state borders; we don't know how fences are impacting those movements," Buzzard pointed out. "That's why it's important to create this data."

Fences are designed to contain livestock movement on working lands but can entangle other species moving through the region. Buzzard noted more wildlife friendly fencing designs can help migrating animals better navigate fenced areas. He added hard-to-navigate fencing is an issue not just on private lands but public lands as well.

The preference is for fencing to be no higher than 40 inches, and for bottom wires to be at least 18 inches off the ground.

"To allow for sensitive species like pronghorn to go under but also for juveniles of other species," Buzzard emphasized. "Juvenile elk, juvenile moose, black bears. A lot of these large-bodied mammals still prefer to go under fences than to go over them."

Buzzard's study found only 3% of sampled fences in Beaverhead and Madison counties had bottom wires 18 inches or higher and only 6% had top wires of 40 inches or lower.

He noted financing is available for landowners to convert existing fencing into wildlife-friendly fencing, especially if a lot of big game species move across their lands.

A controversial proposal to let individual hunters kill two bears per season instead of one is on the agenda at a meeting of the California Fish and Game Commission's Wildlife Resources Committee tomorrow and Thursday. The state allows hunters as a group to kill 1,700 hundred black bears per year, and 1,300 were taken in 2022.

Judie Mancuso, founder and president of the group Social Compassion in Legislation, opposes hunting.

"From an ethical and moral standpoint, we absolutely shouldn't be hunting bears," Mancuso said. "This is purely a trophy sport. It's not about being overrun with bears."

Both conservationists and the pro-hunting advocacy group Howl for Wildlife are rallying members to weigh in at the meeting. Hunters have submitted a petition to authorize a second bear tag for the Fall hunt and to allow tags to be resold if they are not used within the season, which starts in August with two weeks of archery hunting and then transitions to rifle hunting through late December.

The Wildlife committee will also take comment on the development of a new bear management plan, which was last updated in 1998. Mancuso wants the hunt to be stopped until the new bear-management plan is approved.

"We don't want to be killing any bears because this management plan hasn't been completed," she said. "And the department has no idea how many bears we even have in the state. "

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife's 2020 bear take report estimated the population to be about 15,000 animals in the official hunting grounds. And bear tags are big business. In 2020, California sold 30,000 tags and raised more than $1.5-million for wildlife management and conservation.