This is the same creature that "lives" at Prairie City SVRA....

Jon
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U.S. designates Valley areas as habitat for fairy shrimp
By Michael Mello
The Modesto Bee
Published 11/13/02 07:25:10

MERCED -- A federal plan to designate large areas of the San Joaquin Valley as "critical habitat" for fairy shrimp and other endangered species will not affect most land uses in the area, officials said Tuesday.
The plan would specify 1.7 million acres in California and southern Oregon as a boundary within which are areas "essential to the conservation of threatened and endangered" plant and animal species native to vernal pools. Almost 750,000 acres would be in San Joaquin Valley or Sierra Nevada foothill counties, with Merced County alone accounting for nearly 340,000 acres.

Before the Board of Supervisors and a skeptical audience, two representatives of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service offered a briefing on the plan.

Arnold Roessler of the Fish & Wildlife Service's Sacramento office said the critical habitat designation "is just to identify the areas we think need protecting. ... It's estimated that approximately from 60% to 95% of the vernal pool habitats [in the state] have been lost to urban development, hydrologic landscape or agricultural conversion."

Roessler said the Fish & Wildlife Service plan will not affect the University of California at Merced because that project already is adhering to set regulations.

The pools are seasonal ponds that harbor a number of rare and endangered animal species. They also are one of the last areas where California's native plant species can be found.

During the session, supervisors questioned the effect the designations would have on Merced County, especially its $1.7 billion agricultural industry.

"Only actions which require federal permitting or funding will be affected," Roessler said, adding the designation does not require landowners to carry out any special management actions. Row crops and cattle ranching are "pretty extensive activities" where the ground has been worked, and vernal pools, if any, likely have been consumed already.

The critical habitat designation is required by the federal Endangered Species Act, and most species protected in California were added to that list in the 1970s and 1980s. Critical habitat for the area wasn't created then.

"We didn't want to designate critical habitat," Roessler said. "We didn't feel it was necessary" considering land uses in the areas around the endangered species, such as agriculture, weren't likely to change.

"It is only being done now because Fish & Wildlife got sued by a Chico environmentalist group in 2000, and after losing the case, must now delineate the area."

The Fish & Wildlife Service must complete the project by Feb. 14. The public may comment on the plan until Nov. 24.

"It seems to me that this is a freight train that will not be stopped," Supervisor Kathleen Crookham said.

Supervisor Joe Rivero expressed concern that the designation might force future growth in Merced County away from the foothills and toward prime agricultural land instead.

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/5181051p-6189914c.html

Just for those of you that haven't figured this one out yet, a "vernal pool" is A FAWKING MUD PUDDLE!!!!!!

Originally posted by landuseorc
Just for those of you that haven't figured this one out yet, a "vernal pool" is A FAWKING MUD PUDDLE!!!!!!

Read THIS. (http://www.vernalpool.org/vpinfo_1.htm)

"Fairy shrimp are small (about 1 inch) crustaceans which spend their entire lives ( a few weeks) in a vernal pool. Eggs hatch in late winter/early spring and adults may be observed in pools in the spring. Females eventually drop an egg case which remains on the pool bottom after the pool dries. The eggs pass through a cycle of drying and freezing, and then hatch another year when water returns. The presence of fairy shrimp indicates that a water body is a vernal pool."

I would be willing to bet that most of the vernal pools at Prairie City SVRA are man-made. Anyone know for sure?

Jon

Originally posted by Crowdog
I would be willing to bet that most of the vernal pools at Prairie City SVRA are man-made. Anyone know for sure?

Jon


We can be sure, none of the pools in the SVRA are Vernal Pools, as any of the species present cannot be alive due to the impact of OHV's (if we believe the reports of the CWC). There never was, and never will be, Vernal Pools in a SVRA (Get it ;) correct if anyone asks).

If species do exist in SVRA puddles of mud and water they must be introduced (or farmed) species, and we must demand consideration equal to farmed raised salmon (they should not counted or protected as endangered species, even if their genetic makeup is similar to the T&E species.)

Now, the pools of water present on the PCT and John Muir hiking trails have no OHV impact and must be considered T&E, with mitigation to protect them from human intrusion (and we should consider protectionist demands for closure and seasonal reroute of these hiking trails).

Happy Trails!

Ed,

Unfortunately, the pools at Prairie City have already been designated as vernal and protected due to the Fairy Shrimp.
:mad:

Jon

I would be willing to bet that most of the vernal pools at Prairie City SVRA are man-made. Anyone know for sure?
I'll take that bet, Jon. :p

That whole area is dredge tailings -- there's not hardly a foot of it that isn't man-made. Too bad we made vernal puddles for the shrimp. :(

Randii

The plan would specify 1.7 million acres in California and southern Oregon as a boundary within which are areas "essential to the conservation of threatened and endangered" plant and animal species native to vernal pools.
Damn, how do they continue to succeed in getting MILLIONS of acres assigned as CH when the actual habitat is numbers in the tens of thousands? Frustrating!

Randii

Fri, Nov. 22, 2002

Vernal pool protection will be expensive, study says
Private land owners contend that designating habitat for shrimp and plants will reduce their property values
By Don Thompson
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SACRAMENTO - It could cost private landowners and public agencies as much as $130 million during the next 20 years to protect 1.7 million acres of vernal pools in California and Oregon, according to an economic analysis Thursday.

A critical habitat designation could produce offsetting regional and local economic benefits in 36 counties in California, including Contra Costa and Alameda, and one in Oregon, the analysis found, but it said those are difficult to estimate.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed in September that the land be designated as critical habitat to protect 15 species of plants and shrimp that depend on the seasonally flooded pools for survival.

Such a designation would cost private landowners and public agencies between $5.4 million and $11.9 million in administrative costs and up to $122.9 million to modify projects, said the service's draft economic analysis.

That designation protects areas where each species lives but does not bar development. Rather, the designation is a guideline for projects that involve federal funds. The regulatory requirements for most private property owners are no greater than under the Endangered Species Act, which prohibits the killing or removal of a protected species or its habitat.

"It's always controversial when dollar figures are floated," said Barbara Vlamis, executive director of the Butte Environmental Council that sued to force the habitat designation. However, she noted that much of the cost will be incurred anyway under the ESA, even if the critical habitat designation were rejected.

Landowners and developers have argued that the designation could hurt their property values, but the service has determined such protections are needed if the threatened and endangered species are to survive.

"We think the impact's going to be much higher than the analysis shows," said Brian White of the California Building Industry Association. The association plans to release its own analysis next month.

The public comment period on the proposal was to end Monday but has been extended to Dec. 23 to allow for reaction to the economic analysis. Those comments will help determine the final acreage to be designated.

The 11 plant and four freshwater shrimp species live in and around vernal pools and are an important part of the food chain for an array of frogs, birds, salamanders and other animals.

Vernal pools fill with rain during the winter but evaporate during summer months, so only specially adapted plants and animals survive.

The designation was required under a settlement between the service and the Butte Environmental Council. The council sued the service in 2000 for failing to designate critical habitat for the four shrimp species when they were listed as endangered in 1994.

The California counties with habitat covered by the announcement are Lassen, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Butte, Plumas, Lake, Colusa, Yuba, Mendocino, Glenn, Napa, Yolo, Solano, Placer, Sacramento, Amador, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Calaveras, Alameda, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Merced, Mariposa, San Benito, Fresno, Madera, Monterey, Kings, Tulare, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Riverside. Jackson County in Oregon is also affected.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/weather/environment/4580681.htm

Property owners worried about critical habitat designation

Friday, November 22, 2002

By Cheri Carlson

Area property owners are concerned about a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to designate more than 337,500 acres in eastern and central Merced County as critical habitat for endangered and threatened species.

The designation, according to the Wildlife Service, does not impose restrictions on private landowners unless federal funds or permits are involved.

But, according to local landowners and property rights advocates, saying that the designation won't affect private land is inaccurate because almost any action taken by a property owner, such as developing or converting the land, will require a federal permit. They also claim the economic loss from the designation will be far greater than estimated.

More than 200 concerned property owners crowded into the county Board of Supervisors chambers Thursday night filling the seats, sitting on all available floor space and overflowing into the aisles to hear panelists discuss the critical habitat designation.

Ed Taczanowsky, a panelist and executive vice president of the Building Industry Association of the Central Valley, said he could sum up the critical habitat designation with one word. "Trouble," he said, "and we're all in it."

Other panelists, including representatives from the Pacific Legal Foundation, county Supervisor Kathleen Crookham and the county's UC Merced planning director, Bob Smith, said the designation will take away local choice in land-use decisions.

Land-use decisions need to be made locally, said Smith.

In September, the Wildlife Service proposed that 1.7 million acres in California and Oregon, including the Merced County acreage, be designated as critical habitat for 15 plants and animals, including fairy shrimp, that depend on vernal pools for survival.

Vernal pools are depressions that fill up with shallow water seasonally and the main threat to vernal pool habitat is residential and commercial development and land conversion to farming.

According to the Wildlife Service, the agency didn't want to designate the critical habitat and, when the species were listed in the 1990s, the service said the designation wasn't prudent because it was not likely to benefit the species.

But, in April 2000, the Butte Environmental Council filed suit against the service in federal court for failure to designate critical habitat and the service has been ordered by the court to propose the critical habitat designation.

The critical habitat designation wasn't the only rule under fire Thursday. Dee Dee D'Adamo, a representative for Rep. Gary Condit, D-Ceres, and a panelist Thursday, said that the endangered species designation already restricts the rights of property owners, and critical habitat will raise awareness about those restrictions.

She said, "We need to look at de-listing the species."

On Thursday afternoon, the Wildlife Service released the proposed economic analysis of the critical habitat designation.

The analysis, according to some of Thursday night's panelists, was "woefully inaccurate" and underestimated the cost of the designation to California.

The report finds that, over the next 20 years, the proposed critical habitat designation could force private landowners and public agencies to absorb between $5.4 million and $11.9 million in administrative costs and up to $122.9 million in project modification costs resulting from complying with the Endangered Species Act.

An area can be excluded from critical habitat based on its economic impact, unless excluding it would result in the extinction of the species. So proving that the economic impact outweighs the impact to the species may be a way out of the designation.

Thursday's message from the panelists was clear. They all stressed that property owners should get involved and send comments about the proposal to the Wildlife Service.

Congressman-elect Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, has written a letter stating his concerns about the critical habitat proposal to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton.

Cardoza said he was disappointed that the service had not provided notice to the thousands of property owners who could be affected by the designation and, he said, he is "greatly concerned about the impact that this proposed designation could have on property owners."

The service opened a comment period in September and, on Thursday, extended that period until Dec. 23.

Public comments on the proposal can be sent to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Attention: Field Supervisor, 2800 Cottage Way, Room W-2605, Sacramento, CA 95825.


Reporter Cheri Carlson can be reached at 385-2477 or ccarlson@mercedsun-star.com.


http://www.mercedsun-star.com/news/287151677324435.shtml

Huge Proposed ESA Critical Habitat Designation Comes Under Fire


Pacific Legal Foundation Attacks FWS' Anti-People Agenda



MERCED, CA; December 16, 2002: In strongly worded comments provided to property owners and the local Board of Supervisors today, Pacific Legal Foundation Managing Attorney Russ Brooks sharply criticized the Fish and Wildlife Services'(FWS) proposed 1.7 million acre critical habitat designation in the Central Valley for so-called "endangered" Fairy Shrimp and 11 types of plants.

"Property owners beware," said Brooks.

"The federal government is coming for your land. They are stripping it of its use and value in order to preserve some seasonal mud puddles," he said.

Specifically at issue Monday was the 337,000 acre portion of the designation that affects Merced County landowners. Under the ESA, the FWS may designate land as critical habitat that is purportedly essential to the conservation of a species. According to Brooks' testimony Monday, the FWS made an overly broad designation by basing its preliminary decision on incomplete science, guesswork and a precautionary approach that resulted in the government senselessly earmarking all "potential" habitat as critical.

"When it comes to critical habitat designations, the government is in the business of routinely taking it all without ever counting the cost to people," said Brooks.

"Habitat designations-and their associated restrictions-are plenty costly to landowners and local economies. In a region already struggling in difficult economic times, this designation could be devastating. People need to be able to farm, ranch and build homes in order to survive," said Brooks.

When land is designated as "critical habitat," the land owner can make no modifications to it-for example, even the placement of a fence or an outbuilding-without the FWS' specific approval. Approval often hinges on whether, in the opinion of a field biologist, the proposed land use will "harm" the species.

"Sound environmental policy does not exclude people from the equation," said Brooks. "Its time to return some common sense to species protection."

Brooks cited the FWS' use of a "baseline" approach to determine the effect a proposed designation will have in the region. Preliminary reports issued by the government indicate that the economic impact would amount to only about $6 million per year-roughly $1 million for the portion falling within Merced County. According to PLF and Merced County landowners, this assessment is a gross underestimate of the actual impact on the community.

According to the government's estimate, the impact to private landowners in Merced County will be less than $4 per acre.

"Common sense and experience tell us that the impact on property owners will be far greater than what the government has said," Brooks commented.

"The government needs to hear the voices of individual landowners during the public comment period," said Brooks.

Pacific Legal Foundation

Founded in 1973, Pacific Legal Foundation is, in the words of the Washington Post, the "oldest, largest and perhaps most influential" public interest law firm dedicated to limited government and individual rights.

More information on the Pacific Legal Foundation can be found at www.pacificlegal.org.

# # #

Property owners challenge habitat law

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

By Cheri Carlson

Area residents and their elected officials are joining forces to challenge a proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate nearly 1.7 million acres in California as critical habitat.

The designation is supposed to add a layer of protection for endangered species that live in and around vernal pools and, according to the Wildlife Service, doesn't impose restrictions on private property owners unless federal funds or permits are involved.

But property-rights advocates tell a slightly different story.

"There will be expensive, time-consuming, delay-filled consultation processes, multiple lawsuits (and) a general slowdown of activity in and around Merced County," Russ Brooks, an attorney with a property-rights advocacy firm, Pacific Legal Foundation, told a group of Merced property owners Monday.

"Environmentalists and bureaucrats will make the land-use decisions that ought to be made by local folks here in the county," Brooks said.

Brooks was speaking to hundreds of area residents who braved Monday night's rainstorm to attend a meeting regarding the habitat designation at Golden Valley High School. About 20 percent — 337,000 acres — of the proposed designation is located in Merced County.

Many of Monday night's attendees, who booed a community member who spoke up in favor of the designation, seemed to agree with Brooks' assessment.

The meeting was organized by a committee of area property owners, called Protect Our Property, which formed to challenge the proposed designation.

Along with Brooks, representatives for Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, the Building Industry Association and the county joined county Supervisor Kathleen Crookham and Congressman-elect Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, as Monday night's panelists.

Wildlife Service representatives were invited to the meeting but, according to service spokesman Jim Nickles, were not able to attend.


The Proposal

The proposal, required under a legal settlement between the service and the Butte Environmental Council, designates habitat for 11 plant and four freshwater shrimp species that live in and around vernal pools.

According to the Wildlife Service, the agency didn't want to designate the critical habitat and, when the species were listed as endangered and threatened in the 1990s, the service said the designation wasn't prudent because it would not likely benefit the species.

The council successfully sued the service in 2000 for failing to designate critical habitat at the time of the species' listing. The council believes that the designation will add further protection to the state's remaining vernal pool habitat, which has been jeopardized by urban development and agricultural expansion.

"This is a governmental process that has frankly run amok," Cardoza said Monday. "It was never the intention of the Endangered Species Act to put millions of acres into critical habitat to support a species that's not endangered."

And, according to Cardoza, the vernal pool species are not endangered.

He said, "In my belief, you can't have 1.7 million acres being asked to be set across as critical habitat in 38 counties across two states. On its face, common sense tells you that that's not an endangered species if you can find that species in all these locations."

Nickles said last week the listing was based on rigorous scientific analysis, and no scientific information has been submitted to the service regarding de-listing the species.

Cardoza said Monday, "We need better science."


The Economic Analysis

Also in dispute is the designation's economic analysis, which is required by law and, according to Bob Smith, the county's UC planning director, is "woefully inaccurate."

The analysis stated that the costs associated with critical habitat designation in Merced County would be about $10.3 million.

"Experience tells us that landowners will face far greater burden at a far greater cost as a result of this critical habitat designation," Brooks said.

Panelists stressed Monday that property owners should write letters regarding the proposal to the Wildlife Service so those letters can be included in the administrative record.

The public comment period on the proposal ends Dec. 23, a date panelists said should be extended for further public comment.

Comments about the proposal can be mailed or hand-delivered to the Field Supervisor, Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office, 2800 Cottage Way, W-2605, Sacramento, CA 95825. Comments can also be sent via e-mail to fw1_vernalpool@fws.gov.

http://www.mercedsun-star.com/news/281979699691943.shtml