DATE: Monday, July 7, 1997                  TAG: 9707040029
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: OPINION 

SOURCE: BY KAREN L. MAYNE 

                                            LENGTH:   82 lines

BALANCING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION

It is easy to blame the Endangered Species Act, or even the animals and plants it protects, for the loss of precious time and money on construction projects. However, this is seldom the case.

The Dismal Swamp southeastern shrew, protected by the Endangered Species Act, has been unjustly accused of standing in the path of development in southeastern Virginia. It isn't.

Timber sales, residential development, individual lot improvement, enhancement of state natural areas, construction and improvement of roads, dam widening and improvements, cellular antenna towers, pipelines, and other activities have all been successfully completed in shrew habitat.

In April, The Virginian-Pilot published a story by staff writer Scott Harper (April 5) and an opinion piece by a property rights advocate (April 25) about the Dismal Swamp southeastern shrew, a species listed as threatened pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. Both articles contained several errors, which I would like to correct.

First, private developers and local governments were not required to spend millions of dollars to ensure that they did not disturb the shrew, as the articles assert. In most, if not all, cases, developers were required to create or restore wetlands, regardless of the shrew, to compensate for wetland loss.

Under the Clean Water Act permitting program, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers typically requires developers to replace wetlands destroyed during construction. The federal government's ``no net loss'' policy, initiated by President George Bush, recognizes the importance of wetlands as wildlife habitat and for valuable public services like filtering water and preventing floods.

Second, the articles assert that some landowners have been denied use of their property for years and that other developers and property owners were scared off by the shrew and feared unreasonable delays.

No project in Virginia has ever been halted due to the presence of the Dismal Swamp southeastern shrew. Nor was anyone ever denied their right to develop their property because of the shrew. Some projects may have been delayed for a short time, but project plans proceeded with little or no alteration because of the shrew. If any property was ever deemed undevelopable because of the shrew, it is because the developer or property owner did not contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine what would be required to undertake a project.

If a federal project or permit issuance may affect a threatened or endangered species, the agency consults with the Fish & Wildlife Service about the impact and possible measures to avoid or minimize impacts to the species. During the past five years, this has happened only 15 times regarding the shrew, taking Service staff an average of 55 days to complete our recommendations for a project.

And third, as noted in your articles, the Service has new information that will allow it to remove the Dismal Swamp southeastern shrew from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife.

The shrew was listed as a threatened species by the Service in 1986. Since then, new information has become available that indicates the shrew may be more widespread and common than originally believed.

Two years ago, the Service and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries funded two studies by the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, the Virginia Museum of Natural History and Old Dominion University. These studies were completed in 1996. The authors concluded that the Dismal Swamp southeastern shrew is widespread from southeastern Virginia through North Carolina. After reviewing the findings, the Service began the process in early 1997 to remove the shrew from the Service's List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife. Unless new information to the contrary becomes available during a public review, the shrew will be removed from the list next year. This is the normal length of time to undertake the complex scientific and public review process for listing or delisting species.

The Fish & Wildlife Service seeks to balance human development and natural resource conservation. We do not take lightly the process of identifying and protecting species so close to extinction that they warrant protection by the Endangered Species Act. We believe - as do most Americans - that we are doing important work to help protect our fragile environment for ourselves and for future generations.

We remain available to answer questions or clarify information about our activities. If you have any questions, please contact Cindy Schulz of this office at (804) 693-6694. MEMO: Karen L. Mayne is supervisor of the Virginia Field Office of the

U.S. Department of the Interior.

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