Feds agree to
review status of kangaroo rat
A petition from Riverside County's Farm
Bureau prompted the review, which could result in the k-rat's removal from the
endangered species list
By the Daily
Facts
LOS ANGELES The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed
to review whether the Stephens' kangaroo rat, a bane of farmers in parts of
Southern California, should remain on the endangered species list.
The Riverside County Farm Bureau's petition to the agency
for removal of the rat, which lives primarily in western Riverside County and
parts of San Diego and San Bernardino counties, could spell salvation for
Redlands' proposed sports park complex.
The planned sports park on Wabash and San Bernardino
avenues has experienced numerous delays and setbacks since discovery of several
of the endangered kangaroo rats on land set aside for the project.
Since then, the city has reduced the number of planned
soccer fields within the park in efforts to mitigate the environmental effects.
City Councilwoman Pat Gilbreath said a decision by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the K-rat could reverse some of the
issues plaguing the park.
"Obviously it would get one of the major blockades out of
the way. It is one of the reasons why the sports park is still under delay,"
said Gilbreath.
"I could never understand how a rat that was so prolific
could ever be on the endangered species list," she added.
The kangaroo rat's habitat can be damaged by many
agricultural uses, including overgrazing.
The agency's preliminary 90-day review said Wednesday that
the farm bureau's arguments justified a yearlong review of whether the rat
should be delisted. The petition said new populations of the rat have been
found in areas not previously surveyed, and that land has been set aside under
a habitat conservation plan.
Farm bureau executive director Steve Pastor said the rat
limited farming.
When you have endangered species that could travel into
cultivated fields, we're afraid that those animals would be accidentally
killed,'' he said. We try to avoid any harm to the animal, but if something
happened, the farmer would still be held liable.''
But Monica Bond, a biologist for the Center for Biological
Diversity, said the bureau's petition didn't give a full picture of the
problems faced by the species. She said some of the rats in the newly
discovered populations are inbred and appear to have genetic defects, and that
much of the new habitat was designated to replace other habitat that has
already been lost.
Of all the species, that's a ridiculous one to try to
delist,'' she said.
Along with the yearlong review, the agency will also
conduct another review conducted every five years, said Andrew Yuen, deputy
field supervisor for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Carlsbad office. If the
agency finds that the rat should be delisted, it would take at least two years
after the reviews are completed to take it off the list, Yuen said.
While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife reconsiders the kangaroo
rat's status as an endangered species, Redlands will continue working around
the rat, according to Gilbreath.
"Until the rat is removed from the list, we can't really
ignore it"
Other types of kangaroo rats, including the San Bernardino
and Tipton kangaroo rats, are also on the endangered species list.