Proposal cuts Calif. frog's 'critical habitat' by 90 percent
The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a final rule for protecting the imperilled California red-legged frog that would reduce "critical habitat" for the frog by almost 90 percent from the agency's original proposal.
The rule would designate 450,288 acres in 20 California counties as habitat essential for the frog's survival and recovery. That is almost 300,000 acres less than the area proposed in a draft rule last year and almost a 90 percent reduction from the original designation of 4.1 million acres.
The service listed the frog -- made famous by Mark Twain's short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" -- as threatened in 1996. Biologists say the species has disappeared from about 70 percent of its historic range because of development, exploitation and introduction of predatory bullfrogs and other exotic species
Previous habitat proposals have been the focus of lawsuits. Environmentalists sued to force FWS to set aside land to protect the frog, and homebuilders sued because they considered the previous designation too large.
The Pacific Rivers Council, Jumping Frog Research Institute and Sierra Club, blasted the latest proposal. "It's taken 10 years and several court orders for the Fish and Wildlife Service to fulfill its legal obligation to designate critical habitat for the California red-legged frog, and still the agency didn't get it right," said Mike Sherwood, an attorney who represented the groups.
FWS officials said the greatest help for the frog would be a special exemption in the rule for ranchers that's aimed at fostering habitat on 1 million acres of rangeland. The exemption would ease the "take" rules, allowing ranchers to harm or kill some frogs in exchange for creating and maintaining man-made ponds, where the frogs can breed. The service is increasingly looking to such man-made ponds to help the frogs, as their natural streams and ponds are lost, according to the rule.
FWS based its first round of reductions in critical habitat on new mapping, which officials said allowed them to eliminate areas that did not contain "essential" features and focus in on areas where frogs breed.
Additional cuts in the new proposal were made by eliminating isolated tracts the service deemed non-essential, areas it considered too expensive and property in existing Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs). HCPs bring together local and federal officials to draft a management plan aimed at improving habitat. The service says such plans provide greater protection for the frog on private lands than critical habitat designations.
