Time running out to help songbirds and river otters

Tax season over on April 15

A few days are still left to help songbirds, river otters and other wildlife that people don't hunt or fish for.

Money received through the Nongame Wildlife Fund helped bring river otters back to southern Utah.

You can help by giving a few dollars to Utah's Nongame Wildlife Fund before the income tax deadline on April 15. To give a donation, go to line 19 on your 2007 Utah State Income Tax form. Once you're there, enter code 01 and the amount you want to donate.

If you've already filed your taxes, there's another way you can provide Utah's nongame wildlife with some much-needed help.

Nongame wildlife need funding

"Most Utahns don't realize it, but hunters and anglers provide almost all of the funding to manage the state's wildlife," says Greg Sheehan, Administrative Services Section chief for the Division of Wildlife Resources.

"Hunters and anglers provide this funding when they buy hunting and fishing licenses and equipment," Sheehan says. "Because sportsmen are paying the cost to manage Utah's wildlife, we use most of the money we receive from them to manage wildlife that people hunt or fish for."

Money from the nongame wildlife fund is used differently. "Money from the fund is used entirely to help wildlife for which people don't hunt or fish," Sheehan says. "For people who care about nongame wildlife, donating to the fund is a convenient and easy way to help."

If you've already filed your taxes

If you've already filed your taxes, you can still help. The DWR accepts donations for nongame wildlife throughout the year.

You can send your donation to Division of Wildlife Resources, P.O. Box 146301, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84114-6301. Please indicate, either on the check or on a note attached to the check, that the money is for Utah's Nongame Wildlife Fund.

How nongame wildlife money is used

Last year, Utah taxpayers gave more than $37,000 to the Utah Nongame Wildlife Fund. The DWR uses these funds to support several important programs.

For example, the DWR's nongame avian program uses the money to survey raptor and songbird populations in Utah. Information obtained through the surveys allows biologists to make decisions that will help ensure birds as common as yellow warblers and American robins, and as rare as peregrine falcons and yellow-billed cuckoos, thrive for years to come.

The DWR has also used the money to learn more about the amount of habitat that's available in Utah for Mexican spotted owls. Biologists developed this habitat model using GIS technology and results from almost 15 years spent surveying owls in Utah's remote canyons.

Biologists in the DWR's nongame mammals program use nongame wildlife fund money to help endangered and sensitive species. Through their work, river otters now live in southern Utah, a black-footed ferret population is establishing itself in the northeastern part of the state and important information about pygmy rabbits and prairie dogs is being gathered.

"We appreciate every dollar we receive from Utah's taxpayers," says Kevin Bunnell, mammals program coordinator for the DWR. "The more funding we receive, the more we can do to keep these animals off the federal Endangered Species list."