The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public input on a draft Environmental Assessment that considers various ways to protect the eastern massasauga rattlesnake, a candidate species for listing under the Endangered Species Act. The draft environmental assessment evaluates the impacts of proposed conservation strategies that might be used to conserve the snake in six Midwestern states and possibly make listing unnecessary. Comments on the draft will be accepted until November 26, 2003.
Candidate Conservation Agreements (CCAs), such as those considered in the massasauga draft environmental assessment, are formal agreements between the Service and others to address the conservation needs of species that are candidates or proposed for listing as endangered or threatened, before they are listed. Participants volunteer to commit to actions that remove or reduce threats to the species, resulting in stabilization or restoration of the species. In some cases, this may provide enough protection so that listing is not necessary. The Service is party to a number of these agreements, mostly with other federal agencies, states, local governments and conservation organizations.
In addition, Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances, or CCAAs, provide assurances to non-federal landowners -- who volunteer to manage lands to remove threats to candidate or proposed species – that their conservation efforts won’t result in future regulatory obligations over and above those in place at the time of the agreement.
The draft environmental assessment for the massasauga considers three alternatives: a “no action” alternative; a measure that implements CCAs or CCAAs on protected lands (state property, for example) in six Midwestern states including Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin; and an alternative that relies on existing regulatory measures to recover the massasauga after it is listed as endangered or threatened.
The range of the eastern massasauga rattlesnake extends from western New York and southern Ontario to Iowa and southward to Missouri. The massasauga’s decline is primarily due to habitat loss and intentional killing. The Service named the massasauga a candidate for listing in 1999. The Service’s Midwest Region began investigating the use of CCAs and CCAAs for the massasauga in 2001 and such agreements are currently under development in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Copies of the draft environmental assessment for the eastern massasauga are available by contacting Regional CCA Coordinator, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1 Federal Drive, Fort Snelling, MN 55111; telephone 612-713-5343; fax 612-713-5292; or e-mail: fw3_massasauga@fws.gov The draft environmental assessment is also available at the following website: http://midwest.fws.gov/nepa . Written comments may be submitted to the mailing address, e-mail address, or fax number.
Once comments are evaluated, the Service will decide whether to select one of the three alternatives, or to further explore impacts through development of an Environmental Impact Statement.
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 more than 542 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 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 governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
