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By David Bowser LOGAN, N.M. — A tiny fish has yet again raised its ugly head above the waters of Lake Meredith in the Texas Panhandle. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to work with the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority so the federal agency won't have to designate "critical habitat" for the Arkansas River shiner, a two-inch long minnow traditionally found in the Arkansas, Canadian, Cimarron and Beaver rivers as they flow through four states. The Fish and Wildlife Service listed the shiner as "threatened" in November 1998. At that time, the FWS said critical habitat designation would not provide any additional benefit, but the agency was forced to designate critical habitat as part of a court settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity. In the settlement, filed Feb. 16, 2000, in U.S. district court in San Francisco, the FWS agreed to designate critical habitat for the minnow, long used as a baitfish. Under the Endangered Species Act, critical habitat is defined as the specific geographic areas that are essential to "threatened" or "endangered" species, and may require special management considerations. The critical habitat for the shiner includes nearly 1200 miles of the Arkansas River in Kansas, the Cimarron River in Kansas and Oklahoma, the Beaver (also known as the North Canadian River) in Oklahoma, and the Canadian River in New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. In April 2002, however, a coalition of agricultural organizations sued the Fish and Wildlife Service over its designation of critical habitat, claiming the agency had not properly taken into account the economic impact of the designation as required by law. The agricultural coalition consists of the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority, Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District, Texas Cattle Feeders Association, New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, Kansas Livestock Association, Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Kansas Farm Bureau, High Plains Underground Water Conservation District, Environmental Federation of Oklahoma, ProAg of Oklahoma, Settlers Ditch Co., Oklahoma Farmers Union, Hitch Enterprises, North Plains Underground Water Conservation District, and Oklahoma Panhandle Irrigation and Agriculture Association. The coalition won its lawsuit, but that resulted only in the agency having to make the designation again. The Fish and Wildlife Service remains under court order from the previous lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity to designate critical habitat for the shiner. This month, representatives of the Fish and Wildlife Service approached the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority during their quarterly meeting here at Logan, where the authority operates a salinity control project, to see if CRMWA would join a consortium of agencies and groups in a water conservation program along the Canadian River. As part of that program, a management plan for the shiner could be instituted, FWS officials say, and that would alleviate the need to designate critical habitat. The Canadian River flows out of New Mexico and across the Texas Panhandle into Lake Meredith. The water in the lake is then piped to the water authority's 11 member cities across the Texas Panhandle and South Plains. Renne Lohoefener of the Fish and Wildlife Service's Texas office told the CRMWA board that he did not want to designate critical habitat for the Arkansas River Shiner, but his agency was required to by the Endangered Species Act. "The Fish and Wildlife Service, if we had our druthers, we don't want to designate critical habitat for any species," Lohoefener said. "We don't look at it as efficient use of our time or resources. The problem is with the Endangered Species Act that was written back in 1973. It has very specific language in that federal law that said for any listed species, you will designate critical habitat unless there's a really good reason not to." Lohoefener said there aren't many good reasons not to that stand up in court. "One of the other bad things about critical habitat," Lohoefener said, "is that, because the Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't believe in it very much, we haven't done a very good job when we do it. Right or wrong, that's what's happened here." Lohoefener said the agency is under court order to designate critical habitat by Oct. 1, 2005. "Again, the Fish and Wildlife Service does not want to designate critical habitat," Lohoefener said. "We don't see any benefit to it." He contended that designation of critical habitat doesn't put any regulatory burden on private land, but many people perceive it as a federal regulatory burden. "That's the long and short of it." Private property advocates point out that while a critical habitat designation does not directly involve private holdings, a farmer or rancher with a federal loan or enrolled in a federal program is under the control of such federal regulations and faces a federal regulatory burden under the Endangered Species Act. Since about 98 percent of the total critical habitat area is in private ownership, coalition members worry that the habitat designation could restrict land use and groundwater pumping in the listed areas. Specifically, CRMWA fears that the critical habitat designation that extends into the western part of the lake could prevent them from taking actions they deem necessary regarding flooding or drouth plans. Lohoefener admitted that few people are pleased with the current situation. "None of us are real happy with how we got to where we are," he said. He said Fish and Wildlife deals with various organizations in situations in which the agency does not have to designate critical habitat. These tend to be government agencies that control land where there is a management plan in place that will provide conservation for the species in that area. "We do it with Native American tribes," Lohoefener explained. "We do it with military reservations. We don't designate critical habitat on Fish and Wildlife programs or Park Service programs, usually. We've done it on BLM lands." Lohoefener said that to his knowledge, the Fish and Wildlife Service has never established such a program with an organization like the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority. "We, the Service, are absolutely eager to try to do that," he added. "We'd so much rather do that than designate critical habitat, you can't believe it." He said he thinks it's better for the natural resources and for the groups involved. "I guarantee you it's a heck of a lot better for the Fish and Wildlife Service," Lohoefener asserted. He said he would rather work with groups like CRMWA on a voluntary basis than go through the bureaucratic rigmarole of designating critical habitat that nobody likes. "It doesn't do any good, anyway," Lohoefener opined. He said he would like to see CRMWA bring other partners into a conservation program with a management plan for the shiner. Lohoefener noted that Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs has said she would help and would like to be a partner, as would the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. "We have to do what we're going to do by Oct. 1, 2005," Lohoefener said. "That means we have to have the final management plan in place to conserve habitat out there, to conserve water in the river, by Oct. 1, 2005, which isn't long." Lohoefener pointed out that a plan to control salt cedar along the Canadian River as a water conservation project would help increase water flow into Lake Meredith, and at the same time improve the habitat for the shiner. He indicated that federal funds were available to help with such a program. Rod Goodwin, who heads the salt cedar control program for CRMWA, said an acre of salt cedar trees, as many as 3000 to 4000, would use up to seven acre-feet of water per year. He estimated that there are 5000 to 10,000 acres of salt cedar along the Canadian River and its tributaries between Ute Dam at Logan and Lake Meredith. John Williams, the former CRMWA general manager and now a consultant to the water authority, said state law prohibits CRMWA from contracting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There appeared to be some interest in such a program among some of the member cities. In the original notice printed in the Federal Register, the FWS indicated that water flow in the Canadian River was tied to the Ogallala Aquifer, the large underground water-bearing formation beneath the Texas Panhandle. In later interviews, FWS officials said there didn't appear to be any connection between water flow in the river and the aquifer, but there does not appear to be anything in writing that contradicts the earlier assertion. |
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