Feds shrink potential salamander habitat

In a partial victory for development interests, federal officials said Thursday they are reducing by two-thirds the parts of Sonoma County that could fall under federal protections for the tiger salamander.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service said it now is considering about 21,000 acres west of Highway 101 as potential critical habitat and not the 74,000 acres it proposed earlier.

Critical habitat designation would require developers to study whether salamanders are present and to mitigate impacts if the nocturnal amphibians are adversely affected by construction.

The agency's final decision on the scope of critical habitat in Sonoma County will not be released until Dec. 1. But county Supervisor Paul Kelley, a member of a local committee working on an alternative protection plan, called the reduction in the area under federal consideration "a good first step."

The local committee, the Santa Rosa Plain Conservation Strategy, favors an even more limited salamander preservation area of about 4,000 acres.

"The next step has to be not designating critical habitat at all and accepting the local effort to identify and secure salamander areas," Kelley said.

Much of the area remaining in the agency's potential habitat boundary lies southwest of Santa Rosa, on both sides of Fulton and Stony Point roads, from Piner to Pepper roads. However, a significant portion sits within Santa Rosa's ultimate expansion area, which city officials have been working to exempt.

"I am disappointed that so much is still in the urban boundary," said Chuck Regalia, city community development director and member of the local group. "I imagine we will say thank you, it is a move in the right direction, but we will still make an effort to reduce it."

Federal officials acknowledged the reduction indicated the agency is heeding comment from the Santa Rosa Plain Conservation Strategy, which is made up of public officials, private industry and environmental community representatives.

Although the local rules are designed to pre-empt the need for federal designation of critical habitat, they are unlikely to be finalized by a court-imposed Dec. 1 deadline. Federal officials have said they will take local efforts into consideration when issuing their critical habitat ruling.

"It is a good sign," said Jim Nickels, spokesman for the Fish & Wildlife Service in Sacramento. "We have a lot of hope that the conservation strategy plan will come to fruition and will benefit the county and the species."

Nickels said the local conservation plan, when finalized, could offer more protection for the tiger salamander because federal critical habitat designation comes into play only when federal money or a requirement for federal permits is involved.

"A local conservation strategy streamlines the process of development and may do more for the species," he said.

Agency officials have maintained that local conservation plans often are more effective than federal critical habitat designations in protecting endangered animals.

Charlie Carson, executive director for the Home Builders Association of Northern California, welcomed the reduced acreage decision but added he prefers a local plan to federal scrutiny under critical habitat designation.

"At 74,000 acres, it was so in-your-face ludicrous that it diminished the credibility of the overall program," Carson said. "We would not be surprised that the acreage would be reduced even further."

Representatives of environmental groups involved in the local plan did not return calls Thursday.

With announcement of the reduced area under consideration, federal officials also extended the public comment period until Nov. 28.