The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced availability of a Recovery Plan for the endangered Hungerford’s crawling water beetle, a small beetle found only in northern Lower Michigan and Ontario, Canada.
The Recovery Plan provides Federal, State and tribal natural resource managers and their partners with a blueprint of actions needed to prevent the extinction of the beetle and recover it to the point that protection under the Endangered Species Act is no longer needed. The plan focuses on conducting research that will help determine effective recovery practices. Other recovery strategies recommended in the plan include conserving known sites, conducting additional surveys, 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 six streams in Michigan and Ontario. In Michigan, the beetle is found in five streams within the Lake Michigan, Cheboygan, and Black watersheds in Emmet, Montmorency, and Presque Isle 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 pool and riffle environments 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 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 downloaded from the Service’s website at: http://midwest.fws.gov/endangered
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.
