WE may never know how much wood a
woodchuck can chuck, but we do know
that the red-legged frog will be
making do with far less critical
habitat in California.
But that may not be such a bad
thing.
At one point during a 10-year
bureaucratic and legal battle, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
designated more than 4.1 million
acres as critical habitat for the
frogs. That 2001 fabrication would
have created a barrier to further
development in almost all of the
greater Bay Area.
But this month, Fish and Wildlife
decided to impose restrictions on
450,000 acres in 20 counties that
biologists consider critical to the
frogs' survival and recovery.
The restrictions take place only
when public money is being spent on
a project and if an Army Corps of
Engineers permit is required.
The restrictions also mean Fish
and Wildlife will work cooperatively
— rather than adversarially — with
ranchers and landowners to help
preserve habitat in private hands
rather than imposing sanctions.
Without addressing the
particulars of where the frogs dwell
and what areas are most vital for
their survival, this designation
seems much better than those that
went before, especially the one in
2001.
The 2001 ruling prompted a
lawsuit by the Home Builders
Association of Northern California
in which a federal court ordered
that the agency conduct another
review of how much land should be
designated as habitat and where.
That resulted in the area being
dropped to 738,000 acres in 23
counties. The most recent
configuration trimmed another
250,000 acres and three counties
from the total. Alameda and Contra
Costa counties are two of the three
counties that could be most affected
by that designation.
David Sunding, the study's author
and a University of California,
Berkeley, professor of environmental
economics, said it followed strict
guidelines, and instructions set by
the court and Interior Department
were followed.
Back in 2001, we objected to the
blanket approach Fish and Wildlife
took to designating critical habitat
for the frog made famous in Mark
Twain's short-story "The Celebrated
Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."
The fact that environmentalists
and developers object to the latest
ruling may indicate that it is an
acceptable middle ground that
save-the-frog advocates, developers,
landowners and even the California
red-legged frog should strive to
live with until we see whether it
works. |