Critical-habitat Sumner Erdman is proud that over the years, he has helped restore some of Maui's Ulupalakua Ranch to its natural state.
proposals worry
isle landowners
Some are concerned about growing
Q&A on critical habitats
federal control over the landBy Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com"You actually have a rancher and landowner trying to ... reintroduce native plants. It's very important for the watershed in Hawaii," says Erdman, president of the 23,000-acre ranch that runs about 2,000 cattle. "But now I'm faced with a law that scares me."
What's drawing the attention of Erdman and dozens of other landowners in Hawaii are U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposals to designate a fifth of the state as "critical habitat" for endangered plants.
It is the largest such designation ever -- encompassing 43 percent of all plants on the U.S. endangered species list, which is also a quarter of all 981 species on the list.
Critical habitats are, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, "areas of habitat that are known to be essential for an endangered or threatened species to recover and that require special management or protection."
Within these areas, any use of federal money or workers requires Fish and Wildlife to evaluate the proposed actions as to whether they could harm the endangered species.
Some private landowners are concerned that the interpretation of "special management" could result in stricter federal oversight of what they can do with their own land.
Private landowners and the state would be affected only if participating in a federal program. But many state programs do receive federal money, and a fair number of landowners participate in cost-sharing with federal agencies to improve the environment. As long as those projects enhance the habitat for endangered plants, there should be no conflict, said Randy Kennedy, native resources manager for the state Department of Land & Natural Resources.
Pushed by more than 40 lawsuits filed by environmental groups, the service is spending $6 million of its $9 million annual budget to establish critical habitats for endangered species, says Patrick Leonard, national Fish and Wildlife Service listing branch chief.
Paul Henson, Fish and Wildlife Service's Hawaii field supervisor, admits that his office would not have listed the critical habitats voluntarily. "We feel it's not the best use of limited funding and time," Henson says. "We felt listing (more endangered animals) was a higher priority."
But proposing critical habitats does alert the general public, other federal agencies and state and private landowners to areas essential to the conservation of the species.
"I think the overall intentions of the critical-habitat law are good," says Erdman, who has participated for years in cost-sharing programs to restore native species on his ranch. "But there are too many unanswered questions, loopholes and fear factors for private landowners."
Henson said he and his staff have been meeting with many landowners over the past 18 months. Interest mushrooms each time the proposal for another island is made public.
With its proposal last week of critical-habitat areas on Oahu and the Big Island, Fish and Wildlife has mapped out space on each island that it deems the necessary to allow recovery of 255 endangered plants.
Hawaii has so many endangered plants because its geographic isolation has fostered the development of many species found nowhere else in the world. Of endangered plant species in Hawaii, 60 have fewer than 10 individual plants left.
A 1998 report from the Hawaii and Pacific Plant Recovery Coordinating Committee concluded that only 17 percent of Hawaii's endangered plants could recover without human aid. The rest, it said, will need help to survive in sufficient numbers.
"We haven't been doing enough to protect our endangered plants," says state Forester Michael Buck, whose Division of Forestry and Wildlife attempts to balance the needs of Hawaii's 10,000 registered hunters and endangered plants.
At least two groups representing landowners -- the Pacific Legal Foundation and the Hawaii Cattlemen's Council -- are studying the issues and plan to testify at public hearings expected in coming months.
U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink (D-Rural Oahu, Neighbor Islands) questions whether Fish and Wildlife used "good science" in determining the habitat areas. Mink wants the agency "to come forward at a hearing to justify the designations."
Mountainous land -- steep, inaccessible, unbuildable and already districted by the state as conservation lands -- are the least disputed. But even there, Buck says, some landowners who have cooperated with state officials in watershed agreements do not want to get involved with the feds.
Nature Conservancy science director Sam Gon III noted that other landowners welcome critical-habitat designation.
Karen Blue, Conservation Council for Hawaii executive director, said establishing the critical habitats "is just a baby step ... but not the end-all, be-all. It's an important step to make sure that my federal tax dollars don't go towards a species going extinct."
On the island of Lanai, 88,000 acres (or roughly one-fifth of Castle & Cooke holdings there) is proposed as critical habitat. "We're in communication with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service," said Richard Mirikitani, senior vice president and corporate counsel for the company. "We are hopeful we can come out with a fair result that balances our concerns as landowners and providing critical habitat for endangered species."
Spokespersons for the Army and Navy, both of which face significant impacts from critical habitat designation, did not respond to requests for comment.
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Question: Why is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposing critical habitats for 255 endangered species of plants, and what does it mean? Feds’ habitat declaration
plan aims to preserveStar-Bulletin staff
Answer: The Conservation Council for Hawaii, Sierra Club and the Hawaiian Botanical Society sued the service, saying it had not met the requirement of the Endangered Species Act to designate critical habitats for endangered species.
Critical habitats are, according to the agency, "areas of habitat that are known to be essential for an endangered or threatened species to recover and that require special management or protection."
Q: How did the service decide where to propose critical habitats?
A: A staff of four Fish and Wildlife Service botanists, assisted by two mapping specialists, identified where the 255 species live, checked with experts about good living conditions for the plant and where it had existed in the past, and determined what the minimum area would be to be essential to the species' conservation.
Q: What happens next?
A: An economic impact study, as was done for Kauai, will be done for each island to weigh economic or other factors, such as military preparedness.
Q: How can people learn more?
A: Go to pacificislands.fws.gov or call 541-3441. Public question-and-answer sessions about critical-habitat proposals will be held in coming months on each island. Groups and individual landowners can schedule meetings with Fish and Wildlife staff. If requested, formal public hearings will be held on each island.
Q: How can people comment?
A: Comment periods have closed for critical-habitat proposals for Lanai, Maui, Kahoolawe, Molokai and Kauai. Comment periods on critical habitat proposals for Oahu and the Big Island are open until July 29 and on the Kauai economic analysis until June 27. Comment periods will reopen when the economic analyses are released, and all comment periods may be extended under an agreement with lawsuit plaintiffs.