Contacts
Carrie Tansy 517-351-6289
A small beetle found only in northern Lower Michigan and Ontario,
Canada, is the focus of a draft recovery plan that outlines steps to ward
off extinction of the species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced
a draft recovery plan for the endangered Hungerford’s crawling water
beetle, and is seeking input on the draft.
The draft plan provides federal, state and tribal natural resource
managers and their partners with a blueprint of actions needed to prevent
extinction of the beetle and recover it to the point that protection of the
Endangered Species Act is no longer needed. The draft focuses on acquiring
through research additional information on the species that will help determine
effective recovery practices. Other recovery strategies recommended in the
draft include protecting known sites, conducting additional surveys and monitoring
known populations, and increasing public awareness of the species and its
role in the natural community.
Listed as endangered by the Service in 1994, the Hungerford’s
crawling water beetle inhabits five isolated sites in Michigan and Ontario.
In Michigan, the beetle is found in four locations within the Boardman-Charlevoix
, Cheboygan, and Black watersheds in Emmet and Montmorency counties; it is
also found at one site in Bruce County, Ontario. This species inhabits areas
downstream from culverts and beaver dams in clean, well-aerated areas of
streams. Threats to this species include activities that degrade water quality
or remove or disrupt the pools and riffle environment of streams in which
this species lives. Research will provide a better understanding of additional
aspects of the species’ life history and biology.
Copies of the draft recovery plan for the Hungerford’s
crawling water beetle are available from the East Lansing Field Office, 2651
Coolidge Road, Suite 101, East Lansing, MI 48823; the plan may also be viewed
on the Service’s website at: http://midwest.fws.gov/endangered.
Comments on the plan may be made by writing to 2651 Coolidge Road, Suite
101, East Lansing, MI 48823, by fax to 517-351-1443, or be sending an e-mail
to: Carrie_Tansy@fws.gov. Deadline for
comments is September 7, 2004.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal
agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife
and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American
people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge
System, which encompasses 544 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small
wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national
fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 ecological services
field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the
Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally
significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands,
and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with their conservation
efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes
hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment
to state fish and wildlife agencies.
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