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Habitat Toss and fragmentation due to development, disturbance, and <br />invasive species encroachment, has the potential to push many indigenous <br />species out of the county. When the housing market crashed and <br />development came to an abrupt halt in the late 2000s, this issue took a back <br />seat to more pressing economic challenges. With the recovery of the <br />housing sector, we are once again seeing many of our remaining natural <br />areas forever lost to development. This occurs not only due to mass grading <br />and the installation of roads, utilities, dwellings and structures, but also due <br />to large acreage mowing, which essentially converts complex ecosystems <br />into biological voids. <br />Threatened and endangered species management at both the state and <br />federal level is developing as an issue that impacts local project permitting. <br />As local resource managers have become more aware of habitat <br />requirements for rare species, populations that heretofore may have gone <br />unidentified are now documented during permit reviews. A new DNR permit <br />program allows for transplanting populations that are authorized for <br />destruction. In conjunction with a program to salvage rare plants, a long- <br />term monitoring program would provide insight to the feasibility for species - <br />specific ex -situ conservation. <br />6 <br />