Agencies seek conservation partners

Jim Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the administration wants to dramatically expand the federal programs that allow for local conservation efforts yet also ''reduce some of the expansive machinery of government that can sometimes get in the way."

Agencies plan to emphasize:

Interior Department programs that give direct financial help for conservation by ranchers and other private landowners.

Environmental Protection Agency help in commercially redeveloping waste sites.

Agriculture Department backing for preserving farmland.

Commerce Department aid in preserving marine habitats.

''As a 25-year EPA scientist, I have learned that when we act alone, mandating rules and regulations, our environmental progress is limited," EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said.

With about a quarter of all 1,268 endangered and threatened US species residing on military bases, the Nature Conservancy has been an active partner with the Pentagon.

The Nature Conservancy, based in Arlington, Va., is an international nonprofit group with a stated mission of ''preserving the diversity of life on Earth."

The group's president, Steven McCormick, says it helps identify natural habitat that species need to survive, then sets about securing land and funding to create buffer zones. ''We felt that it was a tremendous opportunity," McCormick said. ''There are more endangered species on military facilities than on any other federal lands. They contain some incredibly important habitat, and species depend on it."

The group hired Bob Barnes, a retired Army brigadier general, to help. He had seen the idea take hold with the Red- cockaded woodpecker at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Congress appropriated $12.5 million this year specifically for creating partnerships for dealing with endangered species at military facilities, the first time lawmakers have taken such action.