THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 23, 1995 TAG: 9506210165
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANCIE LATOUR, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
It hasn't exactly been the year of the snake in Chesapeake.
Or the year of the flicker woodpecker.
Now, for the third time this year, property rights and the drive for development will clash with environmental protection laws over yet another animal: the shrew.
Last week, the City Council voted unanimously to help fund a study that could potentially remove the Dismal Swamp southeastern shrew from the list of endangered species.
If the shrew is taken off the list of federally protected animals, it could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings for the city on major projects now and in the future, including Battlefield Boulevard and expansion of the landfill operated by the Southeastern Public Service Authority.
The shrew's endangered status can force the city to find expensive alternatives for expansion. Planners must either devise routes that avoid harming the shrew's natural environment, or compensate for the harm done by adding to the shrew's habitat in another area.
It can also add hours of extra work to city staffers, who must work through layers of state and federal bureaucracies and wait for their green light to go ahead with roads and other infrastructure needs.
``Most anything that the city may attempt to do in a wooded area, could be more costly because of the impact to the endangered species,'' Councilman Dalton S. Edge said in an interview on Thursday.
At Tuesday's meeting, Edge and others said they doubted the shrew was really in danger.
``If the shrew is legitimately in danger,'' Edge said, ``then we should protect it. But I don't think it's in danger and if it's not, it needs to be taken off the list immediately.
``When you bog yourself down in something that is not legitimately endangered, it keeps you from spending time and effort from protecting the species that are endangered,'' Edge later said.
Edge said Chesapeake's combination of rich wildlife, rural farming and need for growth makes for a volatile co-existence between man and animal.
Vice Mayor Robert T. Nance Jr. echoed those sentiments before his colleagues on the council.
``I have to give consideration to the wildlife, but I have to put human life first,'' said Nance, who seconded Edge's motion to help with the study.
Professor William David Webster from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, began the research project to remove the Dismal Swamp southeastern shrew from the list of endangered species.
The City of Virginia Beach and the Southeastern Virginia Public Service Authority have contributed $1,100 and $500, respectively, to fund the study. by CNB