By Mike Parker,
Cedar Park-Leander Statesman , August 21, 2012
The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service proposed this morning listing four local salamanders on
the Endangered Species Act hours before the Williamson County Commissioners
Court approved a resolution against the listings.
The Austin
blind, Jollyville Plateau, Georgetown and Salado salamanders live within
Travis, Williamson and Bell counties, and the proposed listings would designate
almost 6,000 acres as a critical habitat for the creatures.
The proposed
listings stem from lawsuits filed by Save Our Springs Alliance and the Center
for Biological Diversity, which call for the salamanders to be listed among 250
other species as endangered. Colette Adkins Giese, an attorney for the CBD,
said the listings give the creatures a “fighting chance.”
“Giving them
a critical habitat is a big help in giving them a path to recovery,” she said.
“Those areas are essential for their habitat and will keep them from harm.”
Many local
officials, county commissioners and federal officials have opposed the listing,
saying it is unnecessary and detrimental to local development. In July, U.S.
Rep. John Carter introduced the Salamander Community Conservation Act, HR 6219,
which would block premature listing of the species as endangered without
adequate scientific data to support such a decision, according to a press
release.
Williamson
County commissioners created the Williamson County Conservation Foundation,
which is funding a five-year study on the salamanders. Commissioners have said
there is not enough data on the four species to know if they are in need of
protection. But Giese said the 346-page proposal from USFWS has ample evidence
to support the listings.
“We feel the
science behind it is taking the day instead of some of the political pressure
heaped upon this,” she said.
Cedar Park
Mayor Pro Tem Tony Dale has been a vocal opponent to the listings. In an
editorial published by the Cedar Park-Leander Statesman, he wrote evidence
collected by the WCCF study is showing expanding development is not harming the
salamanders.
“Many of us
involved in working on this issue have seen USFWS is using data that does not
support its likely conclusion that the species is endangered,” he wrote.
USFWS is holding public
hearings on the proposed listings. The first hearing is 5:30 p.m. Sept. 5 at
the Wingate, 1209 N. IH-35 North in Round Rock, and the second hearing is 6:30
p.m. Sept. 6 at the Thompson Conference Center, 2405 Robert Dedman Dr., Room
2.102, in Austin
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