Yuba and Sutter counties will receive a $200,000 grant to fund a Habitat Conservation Plan, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday.

The award was part of more than $70 million allocated in 29 states to support conservation planning and purchases of vital habitat for threatened and endangered fish, wildlife and plant species.

California and Nevada received $21 million for 16 projects that will benefit species ranging from the San Joaquin kit fox to the Bakersfield cactus.

"Today's grant awards recognize the important work that states and their partners are doing to conserve and recover threatened and endangered species," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in a statement.

"Grants are an important tool in our efforts to empower local governments and citizens as they seek to develop voluntary conservation partnerships that provide real benefits to listed species."

Rich Hall, Sutter County's Community Services director, said he was "really excited" to get the funds because "as you know, (habitat conservation plans) take a lot of time and cost a lot of money."

The $200,000 Yuba-Sutter grant will allow the two counties to prepare a habitat conservation plan for their valley areas to protect vernal pool plants and animals currently listed as threatened and endangered under
the Endangered Species Act, as well as other sensitive species.

"Yuba and Sutter counties are currently undergoing development pressure as Sacramento County becomes more populated," the Fish and Wildlife Service said. "The primarily agricultural landscape of Yuba and Sutter
counties is attractive to both developers and home buyers, and development of an HCP will also help maintain agricultural activities such as grazing that are beneficial to several sensitive species."

In May 2001, officials in both counties pledged to complete an HCP to allow major highway projects to advance.

Supervisors in each county approved a letter to Fish and Wildlife promising, with the aid of Caltrans, to complete the plan, which will cover most of the Yuba County valley and a portion of Sutter County south of Yuba City.

The Yuba-Sutter grant was one of nine habitat conservation planning assistance grants in California totaling $1.7 million.

An HCP is an agreement between a landowner and the federal agency that allows the landowner to incidentally "take" - kill - a threatened or endangered species in the course of otherwise lawful activities when the landowner agrees to conservation measures to minimize and mitigate the impact of the taking.

The plan may also be developed by a county or state to cover certain activities of all landowners within their jurisdiction and may address multiple species. There are more than 330 HCPs currently in effect covering approximately 30 million acres, and some 320 more are being developed.