(Note: "...the settlement agreement that required the Service to deliver this rule to the Federal Register by July 15..." What took USFWS so long to send this email notice?)

August 6, 2003

r1allnews@r1.fws.gov

Contact: Jim Nickles, 916-414-6572

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today designated approximately 740,000 acres in 30 California counties -- and one Oregon county -- as critical habitat for 15 wetland animals and plants listed as threatened or endangered under the Federal Endangered Species Act.

The final designation represents a reduction in acreage from the approximately 1.7 million acres the Service proposed as critical habitat in September 2002.

The reduction is due to:

Refined mapping techniques, which resulted in a more accurate assessment of habitat lands compared to developed agricultural or urban lands;

Exclusions of Tribal and military lands, lands under Habitat Conservation Plans, National Wildlife Refuges and National Fish Hatcheries, and State ecological lands and wildlife management areas;

Clarified and updated biological information; and

The exclusion of all lands in Butte, Madera, Merced, Sacramento and Solano counties in California due to the potential economic effect of critical-habitat designation in those areas.

Under Section 4(b)2 of the Endangered Species Act, the Secretary of Interior has the discretion to exclude areas from critical habitat if the economic costs outweigh the benefits.

The exclusion of lands in the five counties is not fully reflected in today's Federal Register notice.

Because of the settlement agreement that required the Service to deliver this rule to the Federal Register by July 15 -- there was insufficient time to revise the rule to fully reflect these exclusions.

A technical amendment to the rule to remove these areas from maps and legal descriptions, and change the text of the rule, will be completed as soon as possible.

In its final economic analysis, the Service found that the listing of the 15 vernal pool species and the critical habitat designation could potentially impose total economic costs for consultation and modifications to projects of $1.3 billion over 20 years.

This critical habitat designation was completed in response to a court settlement with the Butte Environmental Council, which sued the Service in 2000 for failing to designate critical habitat for four vernal-pool crustaceans.

Critical habitat is a term in the Endangered Species Act identifying geographic areas that are essential for the conservation of a threatened or endangered species and may require special management considerations.

The designation of critical habitat does not affect land ownership or establish a refuge, wilderness, reserve, preserve, or other conservation area.

It does not allow government or public access to private lands.

In 30 years of implementing the Endangered Species Act, the Service has found that the designation of critical habitat provides little additional protection to most listed species, while preventing the Service from using scarce conservation resources for activities with greater conservation benefits.

In almost all cases, recovery of listed species will come through voluntary cooperative partnerships, not regulatory measures such as critical habitat. Habitat is also protected through cooperative measures under the Endangered Species Act including Habitat Conservation Plans, Safe Harbor Agreements, Candidate Conservation Agreements and state programs. In addition, voluntary partnership programs such as the Service's Private Stewardship Grants and Partners for Fish and Wildlife program also restore habitat. Habitat for endangered species is provided on many national wildlife refuges, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife management areas.

The species included in today's critical habitat designation are four types of freshwater shrimp -- the Conservancy fairy shrimp, longhorn fairy shrimp, vernal pool tadpole shrimp and vernal pool fairy shrimp;

and 11 plants that depend on seasonally flooded wetlands known as vernal pools.

They are the Butte County meadowfoam, hairy Orcutt grass, slender Orcutt grass, San Joaquin Valley Orcutt grass, Sacramento Orcutt grass, Solano grass, Greene's tuctoria, Colusa grass, succulent (or fleshy) owl's clover, Hoover's spurge and Contra Costa goldfields. One species, the vernal pool fairy shrimp, is also found in Oregon.

Vernal pools are havens for California's diminishing native plants and play a critical role in an ecosystem that supports numerous other animals, including birds of prey, migratory waterfowl and shorebirds, as well as frogs, toads, salamanders, and pollinating insects.

The main threat to the continued existence of these vernal pool species is loss of habitat, especially due to residential or commercial development and lands converted to agricultural uses.

The Service conducted a series of workshops and public hearings in October 2002 to explain the proposal and elicit public input.

More information on today's action and the affected species can be found at the Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office's Web site at

http://sacramento.fws.gov.

About 16 percent of the approximately 740,000 acres designated is in public ownership -- or is owned or administered by private conservation groups. The remainder is in private ownership.

The lands are located in the following California counties: Lassen, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Plumas, Lake, Colusa, Yuba, Mendocino, Glenn, Napa, Yolo, Placer, Amador, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Calaveras, Alameda, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Mariposa, San Benito, Fresno, Monterey, Kings, Tulare, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura.

In Oregon, the proposed critical habitat is in Jackson County.

The Service is nearing completion of a plan that will serve as a blueprint for recovering these vernal pool species.

Members of the group developing the plan include ranchers, farmers, developers, conservationists and recreationalists.

The recovery plan will serve as a framework for coordinating activities and describe the site-specific actions necessary to achieve the species' conservation and survival.