CA: Wildlife agency issues guidelines for sensitive California land

San Diego Union -Tribune ^ | 8/11/05 | Don Thompson - AP

[NormsRevenge]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Federal guidelines released Thursday for protecting seasonal wetlands favor development over species protection in a handful of fast-growing California counties.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided that protecting all areas containing the so-called vernal pools would be too costly to the state's economy. The agency's revised guidelines are the latest version of a federal critical habitat plan that an environmental group has successfully challenged in court.

They could lead to additional housing developments in a state where the median home price is about $450,000, 2 1/2 times the national median.

The wildlife agency says it tried to strike a balance between the pressure to build more homes in California's quickly developing Central Valley and the well-being of 15 rare species that dwell only in the shallow and temporary pools.

The habitat boundaries set by the agency exclude 23 census tracts across 11 counties for economic reasons. The agency estimated that protecting the species on those 23 tracts would mean $740 million in increased development costs, nearly 80 percent of the total estimated price tag.

Home builders are "very appreciative that the economic impact was taken into account, because it was very substantial," said Dennis Rogers, senior vice president of the Building Industry Association of Superior California. "I think it would have had a very detrimental impact on development in our area," which runs from Sacramento north.

Builders will have to protect actual species where they exist, but not the habitat where they potentially could exist in areas that were excluded from the designation, he said.

"If the species isn't there, how can it be endangered?" Rogers said.

The distinction between protecting actual instead of potential habitat "has tremendous cost considerations, which are passed on to the home buyers."

The revised boundaries also add protection for portions of five Central California counties. Those areas were excluded from protection in a 2003 Fish and Wildlife Service report that later was found to be flawed.

Nevertheless, Butte Environmental Council Executive Director Barbara Vlamis said the group is "highly likely" to sue again over the new boundaries. The group won the court order that forced Thursday's revised guidelines.

"Their economic analysis, you can shoot cannon balls through it," Vlamis said. "To allow that economic analysis to stand is not a good precedent."

Twenty of the tracts were excluded from protection specifically because the agency decided the economic cost to developers outweighed the need to protect the vernal pools that form each year with the winter rains and dry up each summer. The pools are home to four tiny freshwater shrimp species and 11 plant species that are designated for protection.

The tracts opened for development are in Butte, Fresno, Madera, Monterey, Placer, Sacramento, Shasta, Solano and Stanislaus counties.

In addition, the new University of California, Merced campus was excluded because the protections would cost an estimated $10 million. A tract also was dropped in Tehama County because it was estimated the critical habitat designation would increase the cost of widening Highway 99 by $6 million. The last tract was excluded because it overlaps a planned development in mushrooming southwest Placer County near Sacramento.

The Fish and Wildlife Service was supposed to submit its latest habitat plan by July 31 to meet a court order. Its 2003 attempt was overturned in October because the agency had dropped protections for five counties - Butte, Madera, Merced, Sacramento and Solano - from a 2002 proposal.

The counties were dropped after Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald altered the analysis the night before it was due, using calculations she later acknowledged to The Associated Press were flawed.

The latest habitat designation includes protection for 858,846 acres across 30 counties in California and one in Oregon, an increase of more than 15 percent over the agency's 2003 plan. In March, the service confirmed that an additional 136,358 acres already are protected.

The revised critical habitat rule takes effect Sept. 12 unless it is challenged in court.

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On the Net:

Read the revised critical-habitat rule at http://www.fws.gov/pacific/sacramento/ea/