HUNTSVILLE, Ala
bama -- A fish the size of your pinkie finger could prove to be a giant obstacle to development near Limestone County's Beaverdam Creek. The City of Huntsville has perhaps the most at stake as the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service decides whether to declare the spring pygmy sunfish an endangered species.
On Thursday, wildlife officials announced that the sunfish "may warrant federal protection." The agency said it will launch a comprehensive status review to determine if the rare fish should fall under the Endangered Species Act.
University of Alabama graduate student Michael Sandel, who is studying the sunfish as part of his doctoral research in evolutionary biology, said a five-mile stretch of Beaverdam Creek is the "last stand" for a fish once found in spring-fed streams across the region.
"This is the worst state they've been in since they were rediscovered in 1973," Sandel said in a phone interview Monday.
Although he estimates their population to be in the thousands, Sandel said spring pygmy sunfish are hyper-sensitive to pollution washed into the creek from farm fields. "We can wipe them out by the thousands without even knowing it."
In November 2009, Sandel and the Center for Biological Diversity in Oregon petitioned the federal government to step in and protect the sunfish from possible extinction.
Dr. Bruce Stallsmith, a University of Alabama in Huntsville biology professor, and the North American Native Fishes Association submitted letters supporting an endangered species listing.
Through annexations, part of Beaverdam Creek is now within the Huntsville city limits. And that means change is coming.
The city hopes to create a new industrial park on a 1,500-acre farm near Greenbrier Road and Old Highway 20 where Volkswagen strongly considered building its first U.S. automotive plant in 2008. That property, called the Sewell tract, touches the creek.
Even if Huntsville is unable to come up with the $30 million needed to buy the land, it is marching forward with a major sewer line alongside the creek that will make the area easier to develop.
Economic Development Director Joe Vallely said the city is "committed to working with the Fish & Wildlife Service to ensure that any expansion in that area is done in an environmentally responsible way."
Vallely noted that Alabama cities are accustomed to working within the confines of the Endangered Species Act because the state has more federally protected animals -- 88 -- than any place but California.
"We're well aware of how to plan for growth and take the needs of threatened species into account," he said Monday.
Ray Mahaffey, who is building a 771-lot subdivision a few miles away on Limestone Creek, said growth along Beaverdam Creek won't stop if the spring pygmy sunfish becomes a protected species.
However, developers would have to "take extra precautions" to keep the creek pristine, he said Monday. "You don't want a big, muddy, eroded bank that clouds the water."
Mahaffey said businesses and homes would have to stay well back from the water, perhaps with a wide, grassy buffer called a "bioswale" in between. "Some would argue that it (adds to the cost of a project), but I don't think it's significant.
"I just think it's doing the right thing for the environment."
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