Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. praised a "very important collaborative effort" that has garnered $2 million in federal funding for water and land conservation.

The collaboration he was discussing during a press conference Wednesday in his offices is the Utah Partners for Conservation and Development. The federal-state-private partners are working on projects such as removing invasive pinyon-juniper trees and sagebrush, replanting the areas with native grasses.

That's believed to have a positive impact on water supply and quality and will help support wildlife, livestock and recreation, according to the governor.

Since 2003, about $25 million has been spent by the partners for the project. This year, $2 million is coming from the Interior Department to help with the effort. About 630 projects are planned.

So far, the "Healthy Lands Initiative" involving the projects has treated 500,000 acres in Utah. Another 81,780 are to be treated next year.

C. Stephen Allred, assistant secretary of the Interior Department, praised "a real opportunity" to improve land and water. He noted, "We have many conflicting uses" on the land. Viewing the landscape as a whole, rather than in terms of property boundaries, can allow agencies to better meet energy security needs while preserving resources, he said.

President George W. Bush's new budget awards $20 million for the projects in the West. Of this, $15 million is for the Bureau of Land Management; $2 million of that will be spent in Utah with cooperation of the partnership, he indicated.

"We can accomplish a great deal here in the next couple of years," Allred said.

Mike Styler, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, said the partnership is helping the environment. "We're helping the land, we're helping the water," he said. Projects benefit grazing and wildlife, Styler added.

According to Leonard Blackham, Utah commissioner of agriculture and food, the funding is a welcome addition. "It always takes a little money to make something happen, and we're just tickled pink," he said.

House Majority Leader David Clark, R-Santa Clara, said as a banker he recognizes the money as a chance to reinvest back in the land and water. Utah is losing 15,000 acres of agriculture land a year, he added.

Lorraine Januzelli, public affairs officer for Wasatch-Cache National Forest, told the Deseret Morning News that last year, a $2 million grant was leveraged so that the amount of useful money became $11 million.

Animals that benefit from the "sagebrush Steppe-Aspen revegetation project" include the greater sage grouse, sage sparrow, pygmy rabbit, mule deer, northern goshawk and Williamson's sapsucker, she said.

The grants will allow the Forest Service to double, and sometimes triple, its efforts, Januzelli added. The agency has identified nearly 400 acres of highly invasive dangerous weeds in the forest.

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