The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public input on a draft plan to conserve the endangered Karner blue butterfly as part of a "Safe Harbor Agreement.? A plan submitted by The Nature Conservancy for restoration activities for the butterfly is available for public comment, along with an application by TNC for an enhancement of survival permit. Comments will be accepted by the Service until October 20, 2005.
Under the draft Safe Harbor Agreement, TNC would work with willing landowners in northwestern Indiana to develop individual restoration and management plans that would improve habitat for the butterfly. With the Enhancement of Survival permit administered by TNC, participating landowners would not be obligated to maintain their property for Karner blue butterflies in the future should they decide to change their land management practices.
Safe Harbors were first introduced in 1995 to provide landowners management flexibility while ensuring a conservation benefit for endangered or threatened species. A Safe Harbor is designed to ease private landowner fears when an endangered species is found on their property, or if the property has suitable habitat that could be used by an endangered species at some time in the future. Uncertainty of compliance with the federal Endangered Species Act can be unsettling to a landowner who may have suitable habitat for an endangered species but also may need to manage their property for other objectives in the future.
Under the Safe Harbor, uncertainty is removed. A baseline status of the endangered species is first established for the property. Any population increases above the baseline-even if it is zero to begin with--do not increase the landowners responsibility. For example, if two Karner blue butterfly family groups are present when the baseline is established and the population grows by three family groups over the next decade, the landowner is responsible only for the two family groups, not five, should he or she change land management goals.
Karner blue butterflies once ranged from New England across the Great Lakes region. In Indiana, the species was found in sand and dune habitat across the northern tier of counties. By 1990 Karner blues were found at only two remnant dune areas; they were listed as an endangered species in 1992.
Recovery efforts for the species focus on conservation and restoration of the butterfly's habitat, areas of wild lupine where it lays its eggs. This habitat exists only in isolated areas in northwestern Indiana where land use and ownership vary widely.
Copies of the Safe Harbor Agreement and enhancement of survival permit application are available by contacting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ecological Services Office, 620 South Walker Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47403-2121. The documents are also available at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/NEPA/index.html Comments should be sent to Regional Director (Attn. Pete Fasbender), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecological Services, 1 Federal Drive, Fort Snelling, Minnesota 55111-4056, or e-mailed to PermitsR3ES@fws.gov"> and must be received by October 20, 2005.
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.
