Feds step in to protect endangered species _By Chris Cobb_ (http://herald-zeitung.com/contact.lasso?ewcd=6f6cf874d6a84ef1b95e37e9f79195568af7d827721a528e94756ad7a6117f2b&-session=HeraldZeitung:CD BC74CC02c2e03AD3nXx22D6620) The Herald-Zeitung Published January 12, 2010The federal government is reconsidering how much land it sets aside to protect insects and other endangered species in Comal and Bexar counties.
In response to a lawsuit from environmental groups, including a group from New Braunfels, a U.S. district court ruled in December that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should re-evaluate how much protected critical habitat it designates for 12 endangered species in the two counties. The species include three Comal County natives — the Peck’s Cave Amphipod, the Comal Springs Dryopid Beetle and the Comal Springs Riffle Beetle — as well as nine types of cave-dwelling spiders and beetles in Bexar County. “These 12 rare and unique species need increased critical habitat protections if they are going to have any chance at survival,” said Noah Greenwald of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity in a written statement. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the critical habitat area for the Bexar County animals in 2003, and for the three endangered Comal species in 2007. Animal advocates argued that the amount of habitat set aside by the government was dramatically smaller than what scientists and researchers had recommended, shrinking the prescribed habitat in Bexar County from more than 9,500 acres to just more than 1,000. In Comal County, environmental groups complained that the protected habitat only included 30 to 40 acres around the springs, not any portion of the Edwards Aquifer that feeds them. In response, the Center for Biological Diversity, Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas and New Braunfels-based Citizens Alliance for Smart Expansion jointly filed a federal lawsuit in January 2009 to have the government consider giving the species a larger protected area. “These species are the canary in the coal mine for our area,” said CASE Director Sharon Lavett. “We need to protect their environment and our aquifer, not only for them, but for everybody.” A settlement between the groups and the federal government was reached on Dec. 21, giving federal entities a three-year window in which to re-designate the animals’ habitat. Under the settlement, the USFWS is mandated to have a new habitat designation in place for the Bexar County species by 2012, and for the three Comal Springs species by 2013. “We trust that the Obama administration will give science its due and dramatically increase the area of protected critical habitat for these species,” Greenwald said. _http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=5ca49eee68386b51_ (http://herald-zeitung.com/story.lasso?ewcd=5ca49eee68386b51)
