Government designates
critical habitat for Kauai snail

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By Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.com

LIHUE >> The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated areas of critical habitat for Newcomb's Snail, a tiny freshwater snail found only in remote areas of Kauai.

The designation does not create a "refuge" but does require "special management considerations" for any projects within the critical habitat that receive federal funding.

Included in the critical habitat area are 12.3 miles of stream channel and 4,479 acres of adjacent lands. Most of the areas are within the Na Pali Coast State Park and three forest reserve areas managed by the state.

The Newcomb's snail lives its entire life in the same stream. Its smooth, oval, black shell is about one-quarter inch long.

Biologists estimate there are between 6,000 and 9,000 Newcomb's snails on Kauai, 90 percent of them in the Kalalau Stream and Lumahai River. It was listed as an endangered two years ago.

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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service