The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to designate critical habitats for the threatened Newcomb’s snail at nine sites near rivers and streams in east and north Kaua’i. The designations are intended to help the snail recover. Its numbers
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to designate critical habitats for the threatened Newcomb’s snail at nine sites near rivers and streams in east and north Kaua’i.
The designations are intended to help the snail recover. Its numbers over the years have been decimated on Kaua’i by predators, including fish, frogs and toads.
The snail is found only on Kaua’i, where scientists estimate there are between 6,000 to 7,000 remaining.
The snail is unique because the shell spire has been completely lost. The result is a smooth, black shell formed by a single, oval whorl measuring a quarter inch.
The proposal for the protection areas is tied to a court order requiring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish the habitat areas after it placed the snail on its list of threatened species.
The boundaries of the protective habitats for the snails include about 16 miles of stream area that encompass more than 5000 acres, the majority of which are located on state lands.
The boundaries of the habitats would overlap the proposed boundaries of critical habitats the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to designate within nearly 100,000 acres on Kaua’i for the recovery of threatened and endangered plants.
The proposed snail habitats are on Kalalau Stream, Hanakoa Stream, Hanakapia’i Stream, Wainiha Stream, Lumahai Stream, Hanalei River, Waipahe’e Stream, Makaleha Stream and the north folk of the Wailua River.
The protection status also is proposed for lands Alexander & Baldwin owns in Wainiha Valley, Kamehameha Schools owns in Lumahai Valley and Cornerstone Hawaii Holdings L.C.C. owns in the mountainous areas of Kealia.
Tom Shigemoto, a representative with A&B, Niel Hannahs of Kamehameha Schools on O’ahu and Tom McCloskey with Cornerstone Hawai’i Holdings were not immediately available for comment.
Paul Henson, a field supervisor with the ecological services section of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office on O’ahu, said he has not heard of any opposition to the proposal.
Officials said the federal agency is not trying to acquire or control land through the habitat designation.
They said the project would allow the agency, as a way to protect the snail, to regulate projects other government agencies or private landowners might propose in the habitat areas.
If a landowner needs a federal permit or receives federal funding for a project, the federal agency issuing the permit must first consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine how the project might affect the habitat areas.
If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes a project within a habitat area, it would have to go through a intra-office before a decision is made on the project, according to Henson.
Activities on state or private lands not requiring the federal permits or funding would not be affected, the agency said.
“People construe that the critical habitat designation is a restriction on an activity. But 99 percent of the activities go through,” Henson said.
Critical habitats have been established on O’ahu and the Big Island for at least ten years, but public access to the protected areas has not been restricted, Henson said.
The habitat designations would not restrict the use of land by hikers, campers of hunters, the agency said.
The designation also doesn’t create a wilderness area, preserve or wildlife refuge, said Gordon Smith, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff member.
Habitat designations on Kaua’i’s north shore would not affect Hanalei Valley taro farmers because the sites are several miles mauka of the valley, Smith said.
The designations would promote better water use in the Hanalei River, Smith believes. “There are water management implications. Both the snail and the taro need high water quality,” Smith said.
Smith said the Newcomb’s snail is found in six of the nine sites. The other three sites are being proposed because the snail had been found in those area in the past.
Alien species, alteration of habitats and natural disasters pose the gravest threats to the snail, officials said.
Among the predators of the snail the rosy glandina snail, two species of non-native marsh flies and introduced fish, frogs and toads.
The reduction or elimination of streams or springs could destroy the entire population of the snail, the agency warned.
The snail feeds on algae and other material that grows on submerged rocks in the streams.
The proposed rule for the designations was published in the Federal Register Jan. 28. The US. Fish and Wildlife Service will accept public comments on the proposal until March 29.
TGI Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 Ext. 225 or e-mail mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
