24,000 acres of protected
land named on Molokai

The acreage for rare plants is down
from the proposed 43,000

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By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com

In announcing yesterday that 24,333 acres of land on Molokai will be named critical habitat for endangered plants, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continued its trend of downsizing the acres on each island that it gives that designation.

The original proposal last year identified 43,532 acres on Molokai as potential critical habitat. Based on new information received during the public-comment periods or gathered during field visits, areas that do not provide the habitat needed by the species or are not essential for their conservation were eliminated in the final rule, a Fish and Wildlife release said.

A federal court order is requiring the agency to name critical habitats for endangered plants on each Hawaiian island.

On Molokai, there are 41 threatened and endangered plants. Half the acreage designated as critical habitat is privately held; the remainder is state land, except for three acres under National Park Service jurisdiction.

"Thirty-five of these plant species are found on other Hawaiian islands in addition to Molokai," said Paul Henson, field supervisor for Fish & Wildlife's Pacific Islands office. "In some cases, we were able to eliminate areas proposed for critical habitat status on this island because better habitat for the plants exists elsewhere."

Copies of the final rule were published in yesterday's edition of the Federal Register, which is available at the Fish & Wildlife Service Web site, pacificislands.fws.gov. Copies can be obtained by calling the service's Honolulu office at (808) 541-3441.

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Fish and Wildlife Service