Accord Speeds Protection of 29 Rare Species

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Accord Speeds Protection of 29 Rare Species

http://news.excite.com/news/r/010830/16/science-environment-species-dc

 

Updated: Thu, Aug 30 4:53 PM EDT

 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An unexpected agreement between environmentalists and

the Bush administration would speed U.S. protection of 29 plant and animal

species on the verge of extinction, federal officials said on Thursday.

 

As part of the deal, three animals may be rushed onto the endangered species

list -- pygmy rabbits in the Columbia Basin of Washington state, the

Tumbling Creek cavesnail in Missouri and the Carson wandering skipper, a

butterfly found in saltgrass areas of Nevada and California.

 

Fewer than 50 of the pygmy rabbits remain, and the population of the

cavesnail, which lives in a single cave, has dropped sharply. A subspecies

of the Carson wandering skipper has disappeared in Nevada in recent years

and another subspecies is found in only two places.

 

" I am pleased that we have been able to cooperate and find common ground

that will allow us to protect these species under the Endangered Species

Act, " Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in a statement. " I hope this can

be a model for future agreements. "

 

The informal agreement marked an unusual occurrence -- the administration

and environmentalists working in league, rather than at odds. President Bush

has been accused of backsliding on limits for arsenic in water and

abandoning a U.N. pact on global warming.

 

Under the agreement in principle announced on Wednesday by Norton and four

environmental groups, the government would decide whether 14 more species

should be placed on the endangered list and whether eight more species

should be proposed for listing.

 

In the meantime, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it immediately

would reallocate funds to begin work on the 29 species covered by the

accord. Under the agreement, the four environmental groups agreed to delay

some of their demands to protect or designate habitat for eight other rare

species. That in turn freed up money for the federal government to begin

work on this new agreement.

 

In recent months, officials have complained they have lost control of the

mechanism for protecting rare species because of lawsuits demanding action

on an array of plants and animals.

 

An endangered species is considered in danger of extinction, while a

threatened species is deemed likely to become endangered in the foreseeable

future.

 

Listing as a threatened or endangered species brings special protection for

rare plants and animals. The federal government is required to conserve

listed species and the law bars anyone from harassing or killing them.

 

As of July 31, 1,802 plant and animal species were listed as threatened or

endangered, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

Under the agreement, a decision would be made on listing:

 

-- the Ohlone tiger beetle, a predatory insect found in Santa Cruz County,

California;

 

-- Spalding's catchfly, a long-lived perennial herb that is a member of the

carnation family and found in 52 areas in Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Washington

state and British Columbia;

 

-- Showy stickweed, the rarest plant in Washington state, a perennial herb

with large, white, five-lobed flowers found only in Chelan County;

 

-- San Diego ambrosia, an herbaceous perennial found in San Diego and

Riverside counties in California and Baja California in Mexico;

 

-- the mountain yellow-legged frog, found only in isolated remnants in the

San Gabriel, San Jacinto and San Bernardino mountains in southern

California;

 

-- Coastal cutthroat trout of Oregon and Washington state, nearly extinct in

two rivers;

 

-- the Buena Vista Lake ornate shrew, less than four dozen of the birds is

known to exist near Bakersfield, California;

 

-- the Chiricahua leopard frog, which lives in mid-elevation wetlands in

Arizona and New Mexico;

 

-- the Scaleshell mussel, a small mussel known in 13 streams in the

Mississippi River basin in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma;

 

-- the Vermilion darter, a 3-inch (8 cm) fish found only in Turkey, Dry

Creek and Beaver creeks in Jefferson County, Alabama;

 

-- the Mississippi gopher frog, known only in one site in Harrison County,

Mississippi.;

 

-- the Golden sedge, a plant found in only eight places in Pender and Onslow

counties, South Carolina;

 

-- and Holmgren milk-vetch and Shivwits milk-vetch, perennial herbs

occurring in Washington County, Utah, and adjoining Mojave, County, Arizona.

 

A formal accord still must be written to implement the new agreement. After

review, it would be presented to federal courts.