MONTEREY HERALD (California) 14 April 05 Feds scale back protections for endangered toad in SoCal
Los Angeles (AP): Federal wildlife officials scaled back habitat protections for the endangered arroyo toad in five Southern California counties in part because of the costly impact on development and water deliveries.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's final designation Wednesday of 11,695 acres in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties as critical habitat for the toad is dramatically lower than the earlier 182,360-acre plan struck down by the courts.
In some cases, acreage was refined to exclude areas not used by the toad. Other areas were deleted after Interior Secretary Gale Norton determined protections or alterations to projects or developments required to protect the habitat would be too costly.
The three-inch toad was placed on the federal endangered species list in 1994 because 75 percent of its habitat was lost to development. The toads are vulnerable to nonnative predators such as bullfrogs.
Environmental groups said the final habitat designation falls short of what the amphibian needs to survive. The toad lives and breeds in slow-moving pools and open, sandy terraces by streams.
"The radical reduction in the size of critical habitat is further evidence of the Bush administration's assault on the natural environment," said David Hogan, urban wildlands program director for the Center for Biological Diversity.
The designation along the Whitewater River in Riverside County was cut from 1,997 acres to 333 acres, avoiding a windmill-studded area near Interstate 10 that is crucial to filling an over-tapped groundwater basin with water from the nearby Colorado River aqueduct.
If the designation had remained, the Coachella Valley Water District would have had to pay $6.1 million to divert a pipeline.
In the final designation, the federal agency also removed a critical habitat area proposed for the Santa Ynez River in Santa Barbara County for economic reasons, said Mike McCrary, an official with the Fish and Wildlife Service.
An economic analysis performed by the agency estimated that designating that area as critical habitat could lead to costs totaling more than $20 million over 20 years - mainly through effects on local water supplies.
Feds scale back protections for endangered toad in SoCal