Fish and Wildlife Officials Recommend Protecting More Land for Owls

Fish and Wildlife Officials Recommend Protecting More Land for Owls

(Note: The language deception that runs rife throughout this article begins in the title: "Recommend Protecting" should Red Flag all savvy readers! No mention is made of the impossible tax burden that is heaped on the backs of remaining ranchers, homeowners, et al., when more and more land leaves the tax rolls. SOMEONE must take up the slack. This is why the 'house of cards' is falling in rural America -- and the runaway train that is driving it: Gang Green -- is headed for a city or town where YOU live. Please, read and comprehend!)

November 27, 2002

By Michelle Rushlo, Associated Press

Santa Fe New Mexican

202 E. Marcy St.

Santa Fe, NM 87501

505-983-3303

Fax: 505-986-9147

To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@sfnewmexican.com

PHOENIX, Arizona — Federal wildlife officials have proposed a significant increase in the amount of land that would be designated as a protected space for a tiny endangered owl.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a proposal Tuesday to designate 1.2 million acres in southern Arizona as critical habitat for the ferruginous pygmy owl. The previous critical habitat area, designated in 1999 but struck down by a court order, covered about 730,000 acres.

The new designation, if given final approval, would force federal agencies to ensure they are not damaging the owl or its habitat. It can also affect private landowners who need permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do things like fill in washes or wetlands for development.

The proposed critical habitat, which cuts swaths along the western edge of Pima County and the western side of the Tohono O'odham reservation, covers primarily state and federal land, though 145,000 acres are privately owned.

The habitat issue has been at the center of a heated debate in southern Arizona, with the Fish and Wildlife Service taking criticism from environmental groups and the National Association of Home Builders.

The homebuilders sued over the pygmy owl, claiming the federal government shouldn't have given it endangered status in 1997 or critical habitat in 1999. The court upheld the endangered species status but ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to include more information on the economic effect of the critical habitat designation.

The proposal released Tuesday estimates the cost of the designation will be roughly $33 million to $52 million over 10 years.

The bulk of that cost will be absorbed by mining interests and housing developers, the proposal said.

Most of those costs come when businesses are forced to hire environmental consultants or change the way they build or develop to offset damage to the birds or their habitat, said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Jeff Humphrey.

None of the land that is part of the critical habitat proposal covers the Tohono O'odham reservation because the agency has been unable to do research on the reservation, Humphrey said. Tribal government and religious issues have made it difficult for federal scientists to study the bird there.

Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, applauded the additional land in the proposal. But he said he was disappointed that some other areas, like those near Apache Junction, were left out.

"It's kind of a mixed bag. There is some good stuff in this proposal, but it looks to me like the agency has pumped up the designation where the species is least threatened," he said, pointing to the addition of land in places like Organ Pipe National Monument.

Gary F. Garczynski, president of the National Association of Home Builders, said the economic impact would be staggering. He called on the government to release the data used when it decided on its new critical habitat proposal.

"Unfortunately, the public has no basis to judge the validity of the government's action because the agency hasn't provided basic information regarding where these owls are located," Garczynski said in a statement released by his group late Tuesday.

Cactus ferruginous pygmy owls are reddish-brown birds that are about 6 inches tall and weigh 2.5 ounces. They eat birds, lizards, insects and small mammals and live in river bottom woodlands and palo verde cacti and scrub brush in the Sonoran desert.

Arizona surveys documented 41 adult pygmy owls in 1999; that number declined to 18 in 2002.