The $2 million, included in the proposed Bush administration budget for the Department of Interior's Healthy Lands Initiative, would be administered by the Utah Partners for Conservation and Development, a cooperative effort by state and federal agencies, Utah State University, private landowners and sporting groups. Since 2003, the partnership has spent $25 million rehabilitating 500,000 acres.

Proper management of rangelands and sage grouse habitat is crucial to the state's oil and gas development, said Huntsman, who has pledged to restore 1 million acres of land in Utah during his current term in office.

Huntsman emphasized that proper land and habitat restoration also would help ensure the Frontier Line - a joint venture planned by Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California - will be able to transmit not just coal-fired electricity but also power from renewable energy development.

Interior Assistant Secretary C. Stephen Allred said at a news conference with the governor that the $2 million from his agency would be used to remove invasive stands of piñon-juniper trees and so-called degraded sagebrush that is 50 to 100 years old to allow regrowth of more diverse sagebrush habitat. The subsequent replanting of native grasses would improve water quality, combat cheat grass, prevent wildfires, increase wildlife populations, combat soil erosion and minimize the effects of drought, officials said.

Rich County rancher Bill Hopkin said he considers the money poured into previous and current federal and state restoration programs "substantial."

With the proposed state funds, he said, "we have an opportunity to wake people up. [The land] is going to be with us a long time, long after we're dead. The question is, what condition will it be in?"

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has estimated 13,000 to 15,000 sage grouse live in Utah, including about 100 rare Gunnison sage grouse, which reside only in San Juan County and parts of southwestern Colorado.

Analysis of U.S. Bureau of Land Management land-use plans shows 8,500 new wells planned for Utah. Parts of southern Utah's redrock canyon country are considered particularly vulnerable to future energy development. Well pads, pipelines and roads fragmented habitat necessary for healthy populations of sage grouse and mule deer.

The Gunnison sage grouse was added to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Endangered Species Act candidate list in 2000. But an analysis the agency completed last November found that the species' population has been stable for the past 10 years.

Environmental groups, however, claim the Gunnison sage grouse's seven major population groups - six in Colorado and one that straddles the Utah-Colorado border in San Juan County - are indeed threatened by energy development and grazing.

Getting ahead of the curve is paramount, said Rep. Dave Clark, whose HB102, passed by the House on Tuesday, would allocate $9 million per year to land and watershed conservation and restoration.

It's a lot more expensive to satisfy critical habitat requirements after an animal has been declared endangered. Clark, R-Santa Clara, said it would be better to work to keep the sage grouse off the endangered species list through advance planning.

"We'd rather find solutions before we get the problems," Clark said.