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.
