Pima County’s 13-year planning effort to balance protection of native plant and animal species and habitats with growth and development reached a milestone this month with the release of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s draft Environmental Impact Statement assessing the County’s draft Multi-Species Conservation Plan.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is accepting public comment on both documents until March 15, 2013. The Service is conducting a public meeting on Thursday, Feb. 21, from 4 to 6 p.m., at the Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation Department conference room, 3500 W. River Road, where the Service will provide information and accept written comments.

The Pima County Office of Sustainability and Conservation is also hosting an open house in each supervisorial district to provide information about the benefits of the Multi-Species Conservation Plan and the permit the County is seeking under the Endangered Species Act.

The open houses are planned in:

District 1   Monday, Jan. 14, 4-7 p.m., Nanini Library, 7300 N. Shannon Road

District 2   Monday, Jan. 28, 5-7 p.m., Abrams Public Health Center, Room 1106-1108, 3950 S. Country Club Road

District 3   Tuesday, Jan. 22, 10 a.m.-noon, Robles Community Center, 16150 W. Ajo Highway

District 4   Thursday, Jan. 24, 4-6 p.m., Kirk-Bear Canyon Library, 8959 E. Tanque Verde Road

District 5   Tuesday, Jan. 29, 4:30-7 p.m., Pima County Housing Center (“El Banco”), 801 W. Congress St.

Under the Endangered Species Act it is normally illegal to “take” (harm, harass, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect) threatened and endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may issue permits to take federally listed species provided the taking is incidental to an otherwise lawful activity. Issuing such an incidental take permit to Pima County requires the development of – and commitment to – a habitat conservation plan that minimizes and mitigates the effects of incidental take on federally listed species.

Pima County has applied for a permit for incidental take of 44 species, including five animal and two plant species currently listed under the Endangered Species Act. The permit would apply to County construction and maintenance activities and, as presented in the draft Multi-Species Conservation Plan, to certain private development projects. The draft Plan’s primary approach to mitigating the effects of incidental take is to monitor and manage those lands that the County has already acquired as open space to maintain and enhance habitats for the 44 species included in the permit.  In the future, should additional lands be necessary to provide mitigation, the Multi-Species Conservation Plan allows for the acquisition of additional open space lands.

Both the draft Multi-Species Conservation Plan and the draft Environmental Impact Statement can be viewed at http://www.pima.gov/cmo/sdcp/MSCP/MSCP.html.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2012 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Economic Development, Pima County, Southern Arizona, Sustainability and Conservation, Tucson. Tags for this post: Endangered Species Act, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.