A pair of first-time programs in the state - one engineered by a national environmental group with the help of local ranchers, the other by Utah's School Institutional and Trust Lands Administration - will soon create new habitat for a species that has been listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act because of the loss of its historic range in southern Utah.

"These are incentive-based projects to help us realize some progress that otherwise wouldn't happen," Colin Rowan, spokesman for the New York-based Environmental Defense, said last week. "They're not the silver bullet. But if we sit around and wait for the perfect solution, it might not ever come."

The Utah prairie dog, which in 2004 numbered fewer than 4,000 after decades of being shot, poisoned or run off by development, faces continued pressure in southern Utah because of the region's explosive growth.

Under Environmental Defense's "Safe Harbor" program, landowners receive financial help from the organization - and protections from additional Endangered Species Act restrictions - in exchange for developing habitat for endangered or threatened species on their property.

The environmental group, which has established numerous Safe Harbor projects in the east and south, found the Utah prairie dog a good candidate for the program because so much of the species' habitat - about 70 percent - is on private and state-owned land.

In the case of Koosharem rancher and business owner Mitchel Pace, teaming with Environmental Defense means he will receive financial help to clear a portion of his sagebrush-filled rangeland and replenish it with an irrigation system and grasses that the Utah prairie dog thrives in and cattle prefer. At the same time, he is protected from Endangered Species Act penalties should he accidentally harm a prairie dog or decides to use his land for something else at a later date.

"Without the Safe Harbor agreement, a farmer or rancher has pretty much got his hands tied," said Pace. "With it, I'm protected. I get to improve my property and its value in just a few years, and we help a species survive."

Meanwhile, the School Institutional and Trust Lands Administration, which oversees lands deeded to the state by the federal government to support education, has established a land bank to aid the Utah prairie dog - and free up valuable land around Cedar City for development.

Under the program, the first of its kind in the nation, SITLA has set aside 800 acres of Utah prairie dog habitat in its 105,000-acre Parker Mountain parcel in south central Utah. The agency earned 77 prairie dog "credits" for the conservation easements, based upon prairie dog counts in the area done by the state's Division of Wildlife Resources. It then sold the credits to Iron County for $1,636 apiece, plus $200 per credit for a perpetual endowment fund. The county, in turn, will sell the credits to developers based upon market-rate appraisals of their properties, which were previously restricted because they were identified as prairie dog habitat.

"We feel fortunate to be able to do this and still maintain the asset value of the trust," said SITLA spokesman Dave Hebertson. "This particular round is break-even at best. But it's also the first, and now we have a clearer road to find out if this works."

The irony of these new species preservation programs is that they could eventually be grounded. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a revision of the Endangered Species Act that eliminates many of its "critical habitat" restrictions. Should that version - sponsored by California Republican Richard Pombo and supported by Utah's entire House delegation - be passed by the Senate and signed by the president, many of the incentives presented by Safe Harbor-type programs would be undone.

"We really like incentives, but they have to be followed by regulatory sticks," said Rowan, the Environmental Defense spokesman. "If you simply ask people to do nice things, but have no consequence for not doing the right thing, the incentive isn't as strong."

Then there is the question that hovers over all of this: will these new programs actually help the Utah prairie dog recover?

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources biologist Kevin Day says getting the answer will take time.

"We know that the Safe Harbor program has been used elsewhere successfully, but I don't know if they've ever been used on a species whose population is so scattered," Day said. "And we know that mitigation banks have worked in other places, but this is the first time it's been tried with prairie dogs. So we're going to sit back, watch and evaluate."

Overall, he added, "Conditions for the Utah prairie dog are better than when they were listed [under the Endangered Species Act], but there are still threats out there. Our goal is to get to the point where those threats, and the population fluctuations are not so great that they impact the species. We have to look at this over the long haul."

jbaird@sltrib.com