HONOLULU (AP) – The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on Monday vastly expanded its proposal to designate critical habitat on Kauai, covering nearly a fourth of the island’s land area to protect 83 plant species. The court-ordered plan, which also
HONOLULU (AP) – The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on Monday vastly expanded its proposal to designate critical habitat on Kauai, covering nearly a fourth of the island’s land area to protect 83 plant species.
The court-ordered plan, which also covers a small parcel on Niihau, brought sharp criticism from Hawaii’s top forestry official and raised the prospect of a conservation battle when similar federal court-ordered plans are unveiled for Oahu and the Big Island and modified for other islands in the next few months.
“It’s worse yet. They’re really going in the other direction,” said Michael Buck, state forestry administrator. He said, in an interview, that federal authorities are trying to impose conservation strategies that likely will not work in Hawaii, which has more endangered plant and animal species than any other state.
“We had hoped they would scale down their proposal to run something a little more realistic,” Buck said, adding that the state is developing delicate strategies that will work in Hawaii’s unique environment.
The revised plan for the two islands added about 40,000 acres, to bring the total for Kauai and Niihau to just under 100,000, and removed three endangered plants from the original November 2000 proposal because authorities said identifying their location might expose them to plant collectors and vandals. Two other species were removed because they have not recently been seen in the wild.
The added acreage includes land where no known rare species now occur but which federal authorities believe may be needed for several species to survive in the future.
“Comments on the original proposed rules indicated we needed to include unoccupied land in order for the species to recover,” said Fish & Wildlife spokeswoman Barbara Maxfield.
Consultation with botanists and other experts on Hawaii plant life are the basis for the federal strategy, she said.
Anne Badgley, regional director for the service, said public comment would be sought before the plan is imposed. An open hearing is set for Feb. 13 in Lihue.
“The changes we have made are significant,” Badgley said.
Critical habitat designation does not create a preserve or refuge but prevents any program or development that uses federal funding or requires federal permits.
It does not apply to projects or activities on state or private land where federal programs are not involved.
Hunters fear critical-habitat designations could lead to severe restrictions, and state officials are concerned that too much federal regulation will affect their efforts to get the voluntary cooperation of private land owners in preserving plant and animal species.
A 1998 federal court order listed 255 plants needing protection across the Hawaiian Islands. Of those, 95 were considered to be on Kauai and Niihau, but some were taken off the list early on because the service could not find any land where they were growing.
Buck said he would not be surprised if the final federal proposals for plant protection follow the Kauai pattern and designate one-fourth of the entire state as critical habitat.
Plans also were announced Monday to revise proposed rules for plant species on Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Kahoolawe in the coming months, and rules will be proposed for the first time to cover plant species on Oahu, the Big Island and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands before the court’s April 30 deadline, wildlife officials said.
The service also proposed on Monday critical-habitat designation of nine streams and tributaries on Kauai for protection of a small fresh-water snail listed as threatened with extinction.
The proposal would affect largely remote sections of six Kauai streams where Newcomb’s snail has been found and three where the species was once found but no longer exists.
Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Region: www.r1.fws.gov
Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife: www.state.hi.us/dlnr/dofaw/
