CCAA for six species in the Trinity River Basin

This Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA, agreement) for Six Species in the Trinity Basin is a voluntary conservation agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Trinity River Authority of Texas (TRA). Both the Upper Trinity River Water Quality Compact (Compact) and the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) have assisted in the development of this CCAA and intend to sign onto the agreement upon its completion. To develop a candidate conservation agreement with assurances, the USFWS works with its partners to identify threats to at-risk or candidate species (i.e., candidates for potential listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973, as amended (16 U.S.C 1531 et seq.)) and designs Conservation Measures needed to address the threats, identifies landowners willing to implement those measures through conservation agreements and monitors the effectiveness of those measures utilizing Adaptive Management. In return, participating landowners who voluntarily sign a CCAA under a Certificate of Inclusion (CI) are given assurances that should a species covered by the agreement become listed under the ESA in the future, no additional conservation will be required beyond what is outlined in the agreement for Covered Activities that may result in take of the listed species so long as the applicant is fulfilling the terms of the agreement. The goal of the agreement is to provide a net conservation benefit for candidate and at-risk species. In some cases, the conservation benefit may be sufficient to preclude the need for a species to become listed under the ESA in the future. If any of the 6 species (collectively Covered Species) within this CCAA do become listed, parties who have already entered into this CCAA with the USFWS can be covered under an issued Section 10(a)(1)(A) Enhancement of Survival Permit (Permit) and will not be required to implement additional Conservation Measures beyond those outlined in this CCAA. It is this regulatory certainty that appeals to many conservation partners and is one of the primary incentives for parties to enter into a CCAA. Once an agreement is in place, and if a Covered Species becomes listed, parties to the agreement are covered for incidental take if they comply with the terms of the CCAA, and operations may proceed as long as the terms of the CCAA continue to be met.

The Covered Species for this CCAA include four species of freshwater mussels, 1) Texas Fawnsfoot (Truncilla macrodon), 2) Texas Heelsplitter (Potamilus amphichaenus), 3) Trinity Pigtoe (Fusconaia chunii), and 4) Louisiana Pigtoe (Pleurobema riddellii); and two species of turtles, 1) Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys temminckii) and 2) Western Chicken Turtle (Deirochelys reticularia miaria). While the Conservation Measures outlined in this document are designed to benefit these six species specifically, they should benefit a variety of aquatic species, including amphibians, fish, and macroinvertebrates.