Officials consider rule to allow limited development, protect species habitats
Following more than two years of research and public comments, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced Feb. 21 that the Georgetown and Salado salamanders would be listed as threatened species.
[A] threatened [listing] is a better scenario than endangered, said Williamson County Commissioner Valerie Covey, who has worked with USFWS throughout the process. Its a disappointment we didnt get a no-list scenario.
USFWS Public Affairs Specialist Lesli Gray said the Endangered Species Act allows the service to define prohibited activities for threatened species under 4(d) of the act.
If the 4(d) rule is approved by the USFWS for the Georgetown salamander, development activities consistent with ordinances adopted by City Council in December would not be in violation of the ESA, Gray said.
If it had been listed as endangered, a 4(d) rule would not be available, Covey said. That was the good thing about the decision.
Covey worked with the Williamson County Conservation Foundation to draft the comprehensive conservation plan and water quality management plan adopted by City Council.
The ordinances were adopted to remove the salamander from USFWS candidate list for endangered species and would have been rescinded if the salamander had been listed as endangered, Covey said.
Under the ordinances, springs that are known salamander habitats would be protected by an 80-meter no-disturbance zone along the stream the spring flows into. Maintenance of existing developments would be permitted, but no new construction could take place there, Covey said.
In addition, a 300-meter minimal disturbance zone would further protect the habitat, allowing some parks, wastewater infrastructure and residential development near the habitat, she said.
Spring buffers would allow limited construction within 50 meters of any spring, and stream buffers would limit development and construction to wastewater lines, parks, utility line crossings, flood-control measures and road crossings.
A 60-day comment period on the proposed 4(d) rule opened Feb. 24. Comments can be made online or through the mail by April 25.
Gray said USFWS would review the comments to decide whether to finalize the 4(d) rule as proposed, finalize the rule with revisions or withdraw the proposition. If the 4(d) rule is adopted, it could take up to a year to implement.
In the meantime, landowners and developers should talk to USFWS if they think a project will effect a salamander or its habitat, Gray said. Developers with projects using federal permits or receiving federal funding may communicate with USFWS through the federal agency with which they are working, she said.
The message we got was if developers ... use the ordinance in planning, there should be no reason they cant move forward, Covey said after discussions with USFWS representatives March 4. If [the development is] in Georgetown [city limits] or [the extraterritorial jurisdiction] ... the advice is to use the ordinance.
