The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today published, as part of a final designation of critical habitat for the threatened California red-legged frog, a rule that strongly encourages ranchers to help conserve the amphibian on 1 million acres or more of rangeland. The rule is designed to help cattle ranchers remain viable when they help the frog survive.
The encouragement for frog-compatible ranching may be the most far-reaching element of the Services designation of 450,288 acres in 20 California counties as critical habitat. The rule makes it easier for ranchers to maintain man-made stock ponds, an increasingly important breeding place for the frogs as natural streams and ponds are being lost. Two-thirds of the critical habitat is not Federal land and thus not directly affected by the critical habitat designation.
"Overall, we believe that minimizing the regulatory restrictions on routine ranching activities will increase the likelihood that more landowners will voluntarily allow California red-legged frogs to persist or increase on their private lands," the Service said in its rule, "and that the impacts to California red-legged frogs from such activities are far outweighed by the benefits of maintaining a rangeland landscape in which California red-legged frogs can co-exist with a ranching operation."
Expanding its conservation partnerships with ranchers is a key objective. Section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) allows the Secretary of Interior to modify the standard protections for threatened species when the changes will provide an overall benefit to the species. The Service projects that the rule could apply to 1 million acres or more of land where frogs live on ranchland. The 4(d) rule includes special protections for ranchers who help the frog thrive on their land.
The Service said in its rule, "We believe that sensible ranching operations are compatible with California red-legged frog conservation and recovery, while alternate land uses such as high-density urban development, which could replace failed ranching operations, are not compatible. To the extent ranching activities are compatible with the California red-legged frog, we wish to encourage such activities to continue."
The new rule, aligned with the Services Conservation Partnership efforts, is designed to save ranches while generating substantial benefit for the threatened species. Last year the Service joined with cattlemen, environmental groups and other government agencies to sign the California Rangeland Resolution (http://www.calcattlemen.org/Rangeland%20Resolution%20Home.htm), a strategy to preserve both imperiled species and ranching operations. The Service identifies several long-term studies, at Point Reyes National Seashore and on East Bay Regional Park District lands, which show benefits of ranching to healthy frog populations.
The native amphibian became a Western icon when it inspired Mark Twains short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." But since then it has suffered a 70 percent reduction in its range due to habitat loss, overexploitation, and exotic predators.
Critical habitat is a term used in the ESA to identify geographic areas containing features essential for the conservation of a threatened or endangered species and that may call for special management considerations or protection. The designation of critical habitat does not affect land ownership or establish a refuge, wilderness, reserve, preserve or other conservation area conservation areaA conservation area is a type of national wildlife refuge that consists primarily or entirely of conservation easements on private lands. These conservation easements support private landowner efforts to protect important habitat for fish and wildlife and major migration corridors while helping to keep agricultural lands in production.
Learn more about conservation area . It does not allow government or public access to private lands. However, Federal agencies that undertake, fund or permit activities that may affect critical habitat are required to consult with the Service to ensure such actions do not adversely modify or destroy designated critical habitat.
The final critical habitat rule designates 34 units of critical habitat in 20 counties: Alameda, Butte, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Kern, Los Angeles, Marin, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Ventura and Yuba. About 36 percent of the land is federal, 5 percent state-owned, and 59 percent private. Three counties with proposed critical habitat were entirely eliminated from the final rule: Calaveras, Riverside and Stanislaus.
In its final rule, the Service reduced by 40 percent the 737,912 acres proposed for critical habitat last November. Much of the overall reduction was made possible by better information and the ability to map frog habitat more precisely.
The Service eliminated 250,000 acres of proposed critical habitat based an economic analysis required under the ESA. The analysis by the Oakland, CA office of CRA International concluded that the costs for the November proposal would be $497 million over 20 years, mostly in lost development opportunities and increased development costs. In the final rule the Service eliminated areas associated with $396 million of the projected impact. In San Luis Obispo County the elimination of 63,528 acres of proposed critical habitat is estimated to avoid $162 million in regulatory burden over 20 years. Regulatory relief in other counties where critical habitat was reduced or eliminated include: Alameda ($88 million), Contra Costa ($63 million), Santa Barbara ($32 million), San Mateo ($15 million), Ventura ($15 million) and Riverside ($14 million).
Although a substantial acreage was eliminated from critical habitat because of economics, landowners in those areas are not exempt from take violations under the ESA. The Service pointed out that landowners still must consult with the Service and provide appropriate mitigation if they propose to harm the frog. The fundamental ban on harming the species is provided by the fact that it is a listed species under the ESA, rather than by designation of critical habitat. The Service explained "inasmuch as all these units are currently occupied by the species, consultation for activities that may adversely affect the subspecies...would be required even without the critical habitat designation."
The final critical habitat designation was prepared pursuant to a court order resulting from a lawsuit filed against the Service by the Home Builders Association of Northern California, California Chamber of Commerce, California Building Industry Association, California Alliance for Jobs, and the Building Industry Legal Defense. Those groups challenged a March 2001 rule designating 4,140,440 acres as critical habitat for the frog. The court cited deficiencies in both the final rule establishing the critical habitat designation and in the economic analysis done in anticipation of the rule. The court ordered the Service to conduct a new economic analysis and publish a new proposal by March 2004, and finally set March 31, 2006 as the deadline to issue its revised rule. The November proposed critical habitat of 737,912 acres was about 18 percent of the 4.1 million acres the Service originally proposed as critical habitat in 2004.
In 30 years of implementing the ESA, the Service has found that designation of critical habitat provides little additional protection for most listed species, while preventing the agency from using scarce conservation resources for activities with greater conservation benefits.
In almost all cases, recovery of listed species will come through voluntary cooperative partnership, not regulatory measures such as critical habitat. Habitat is also protected through cooperative measures under the ESA, including Habitat Conservation Plans, Safe Harbor Agreements, Candidate Conservation Agreements, and state programs. In addition, voluntary partnership programs such as the Service's Private Stewardship Grants and the Partners for Fish and Wildlife program also restore habitat. Habitat for listed species is provided on many of the Service's National Wildlife Refuges and state wildlife management areas.
A copy of the rule and other information about the California red-legged frog is available at http://www.fws.gov/sacramento.
