A draft plan to conserve the federally endangered Karner blue butterfly on lands owned and managed by two northern Indiana utility companies is available for review and comment, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Northern Indiana Public Service Company and Indiana American Water Company have presented the Service with a draft plan that describes ways the companies will manage their lands to conserve the butterfly and its habitat on 86 acres of rights-of-way in Lake and Porter counties. The draft Habitat Conservation Plan, or HCP, includes measures that would offset impacts to the species and its habitat resulting from maintenance and other activities carried out by the utilities on the rights-of-way.
NIPSCO owns and maintains a number of electric transmission lines and natural gas pipeline rights-of-way in northern Indiana, including lands where endangered Karner blue butterflies occur. IAWC owns a corridor for an underground water pipeline in an area where the butterflies live. These areas support wild lupine, a flowering plant that is the sole food source for larval Karner blues.
The draft plan spells out measures the companies would take to conduct maintenance of their lands and facilities with minimal impact to the Karner blue butterfly. These measures include vegetation management practices – such as mowing or hand-cutting – that result in conditions favored by wild lupine; maintaining a minimum acreage of wild lupine; planting additional wild lupine, as well as other nectar plants used by adult butterflies; permanent conservation and management of more than 12 acres of land to encourage use by Karner blue butterflies; and monitoring of the butterfly and lupine to ensure management actions are effective.
If the plan is approved by the Service, the companies will be issued an “incidental take” permit, which allows a limited number of butterflies to be affected by maintenance activities, as long as the companies continue to implement conservation actions contained in the habitat conservation plan. This provision under the Endangered Species Act is meant to allow activities on private land that might harm or kill endangered or threatened animals, as long as long-term conservation is guaranteed. The Act prohibits harming and killing species listed as endangered or threatened.
The Service has made a preliminary determination that approval of the proposed plan qualifies as a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act and as a “low-effect” plan.
Determination of low-effect habitat conservation plans is based on three criteria: (1) implementation of the proposed plan would result in minor or negligible effects on federally listed, proposed, and candidate species and their habitats; (2) implementation of the proposed plan would result in minor or negligible effects on other environmental values or resources; and (3) impacts of the proposed plan, considered together with the impacts of other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable similarly situated projects, would not result in cumulative effects to environmental values or resources which would be considered significant.
The draft habitat conservation plan, incidental take permit application, and an environmental assessment developed under the National Environmental Policy Act are available for review on the Service’s Midwest website at: peter_fasbender@fws.gov, or by writing to: Peter Fasbender, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecological Services, 1 Federal Drive, Fort Snelling, MN 55111-4056 . Written comments may be submitted by mail or e-mail to the addresses listed above, or via fax to (612)713-5292. Comments should be submitted no later than August 18, 2005. The Service will review comments from the public prior to making a decision on granting the permit.
The Karner blue butterfly is closely linked to areas that support wild lupine. It is found mainly in Wisconsin but also in portions of Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire and Ohio. It may also occur in Illinois. Karner blue butterflies were listed in 1992 as endangered – a designation under the Endangered Species Act that indicates the butterfly is in danger of extinction. Threats to the Karner blue butterfly include loss of habitat, and lack of natural processes – such as wildfire – that once helped maintain habitat suitable for lupine. Because of their color and appearance, they are also vulnerable to collection.
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.
