Posted on 03/09/2005 7:38:56 PM PST by Citizen James
FAIRFIELD - Travis Air Force Base once again avoided getting a vernal pool critical habitat designation that some feared could hamper both routine base chores and expansions.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday announced its decision to exclude Travis and various other lands in the state. It made the same ruling in 2003, but had to take another look at the issue following a lawsuit.
"This is the service's final action," agency spokesman Al Donner said.
Once land is designated critical habitat, federal agencies must consult with Fish and Wildlife before allowing anything that could harm areas essential to the recovery of rare animals and plants.
Vernal pools are clay-lined depressions that fill with water during the rainy season. They provide a home to a range of plants and animals. Travis pools have the federally protected vernal pool fairy shrimp and a plant called the Contra Costa goldfield. The base has about 235 vernal pools on 100 acres.
Fish and Wildlife decided it didn't have the power to designate critical vernal pool habitat at either Travis or Beale Air Force Base in Yuba County.
Both bases already have approved natural resource management plans, the Fish and Wildlife decision said. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2004 prohibits the agency from designating critical habitat on Department of Defense lands with such plans, it said.
Management plans are preferable to critical habitat, Donner said.
"We'd rather have a management plan that takes care of the species than a line on the map," Donner said.
County Supervisor Mike Reagan opposed the possible Travis critical habitat designation. The designation could virtually eliminate the base's operational flexibility and stop plans to build an assault strip for C-17s, he said.
"The Air Force operates under the mantra that flexibility is the key to air power," Reagan wrote to Fish and Wildlife.
An article published on the U.S. Air Force news Web site said almost all of Travis, short of the runways, could have become critical habitat. Travis might then need Fish and Wildlife permission to do such chores as yard and grounds maintenance, it said.
Fish and Wildlife in 2002 looked at designating 1.7 million acres as critical vernal pool habitat, most of it in California. It did so following a court settlement with the Butte Environmental Council. It designated 740,000 acres. Among the proposed lands excluded was Travis Air Force Base and a total of 96,000 acres in Solano County.
The Butte Environmental Council sued, forcing Fish and Wildlife to reconsider the excluded lands and take more public comments.
The Tuesday exclusion decision affected 136,000 acres on military bases, state and federal wildlife preserves, tribal lands and lands covered by habitat conservation plans. Fish and Wildlife has until July 31 to make its final decision on the remaining lands it tried to exclude in 2003. Among these is Fairfield's northeast growth area near Travis.
Critical habitat designation in most circumstances provides little additional value for species protected under the Endangered Species Act, Tuesday's Fish and Wildlife decision stated. It criticized the amount of time and money spent on critical habitat designations driven more by the courts than by biology.
"We have been inundated with lawsuits for our failure to designate critical habitat and we face a growing number of lawsuits challenging critical habitat determinations once they are made," the Fish and Wildlife decision said.
These are not new opinions, Donner said.
"That's pretty much been the service's view for the past decade," Donner said.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you see an endangered plant or animal on you property, kill it and bury it or the government will simply take control of the property from you without bothering to buy it. You get to keep paying the property taxes, of course.
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