11.   Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt gives the Washington Board of Natural Resouces a pep-talk Tuesday for a controversial habitat conservation plan that it is considering for state lands.

12.   It says the U.S. will obtain permission before entering reservations, and will defer to existing tribal conservation plans.

13.   It would leave considerable power in the hands of the secretary of the interior, whose agency would continue to control conservation plans for protected species using government regulations.

14.   Look no further than the Web, where the agency that brought us the atomic bomb is developing a conservation plan to help homeowners reduce power costs.

15.   Members are developing geographic imaging software that will let researchers analyze the data collected during three years of field studies and use it to develop conservation plans.

16.   Melnick said the Nigerian chimps are the most critically endangered of all the chimp populations and a conservation plan would probably involve setting up wildlife refuges.

17.   Mexico also has agreed to joint conservation plans, some of which already have been undertaken.

18.   Meanwhile, county officials are scrambling to put together a habitat conservation plan, which they will submit to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

19.   Other initiatives could include a county habitat conservation plan and cooperative agreements with private landowners, including habitat conservation plans.

20.   Pima County, for instance, has a sweeping desert conservation plan that includes such pricey goals as saving ranches, restoring river areas and expanding its mountain parks.