Preserve for Endangered Fly Dedicated

Press Engerprise ^ | Jennifer Bowles

[goron]

Preserve for endangered fly dedicated

COLTON: A 150-acre field is set aside to help remove a barrier to building projects.

01:47 AM PDT on Tuesday, June 28, 2005

By JENNIFER BOWLES / The Press-Enterprise

Calling it the wave of the future for endangered species protections, federal wildlife officials on Monday helped dedicate a 150-acre field in Colton as a permanent preserve for an endangered fly.

Some developers who have been stymied by protections for the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly will buy credits to help manage the preserve so their projects can go forward. It is the first conservation bank for the insect, although a few banks exist for other Inland species.

"We hope and anticipate the new enterprise will be a big payoff to you," Mike Fris, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's regional program manger for endangered species, said to Colton officials at the ceremony.

Without the conservation bank, landowners typically have to set aside some of their own property as habitat while developing the rest. Use of the new bank, Fris said, will free up more land for development while preserving the largest piece of habitat left for the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly.

The fly, federally protected since 1993, is the flagship species for dunes created over hundreds of years by the Santa Ana winds that scooped sand from the mountains and deposited them in the valley.

Development has paved over much of the dunes, leaving only 1,200 acres scattered across Riverside and San Bernardino counties in areas such as Rialto, Colton and Mira Loma.

Colton officials said they hoped projects in their city would get a chance to use the conservation bank.

"Our concern is that outside jurisdictions will get the benefit," said Dierdre Bennett, Colton mayor.

Officials with Vulcan Materials, which opened the bank on their land, said they will start with a 60-day period to determine who wants to participate and how much the credits will cost. Federal wildlife officials will determine how many credits a developer would have to buy based on the quality and size of fly habitat they want to build on, said Karen Goebel, assistant field supervisor for the wildlife agency.

Colton's city manager, Daryl Parrish, said the city is nearing approval by the federal wildlife agency on another plan that will preserve 19 acres of fly habitat and free up 11 acres for traffic improvements, the expansion of a city-owned cemetery and other city projects.

Part of that, he said, will be working with Vulcan to close a stretch of Slover Avenue south of Interstate 10 that is used by many to dump garbage and large items in the fly habitat.

Jane Block, president of the Riverside Land Conservancy, which will oversee the management of the conservation bank, said the dunes are part of the Inland region's natural heritage and their loss could trigger the extinction of several imperiled species that depend on them.

"What we leave for the future is an important thing for us all to think about -- an important gift of unique habitat and unique species."

[Fintan]

 

 

[umgud]

There is something folks don't know about these land bank units (conservatories for for fauna or species). Often enforcement agencies will force people to buy into these. We had an incident with a blunt nosed leapord lizzard on our propery....... an employee brought it to me in a cup with a perforated lid (ya ain't supposed to pick them up) because it was in a dangerous area. I took it several miles away and released it and reported the release.

Result? A $25,000 fine and we were coerced thru a settlement agreement to buy and donate about 25 acres of land nearby to a nature conservancy.

[goron]

wow, $25k for a lizard.. geez

I used to live close to this area the flies are in, and those things are pesky. If its the same flies I encountered, they pretty much fly up the nose & ears, and are extremely annoying.

The surrounding area gets sprayed to kill misquitos that carry west nile virus, so I'm wondering that if this 150 acres in Colton is off limit to the spraying, could be a breeding ground for west nile infected misquitos?

What's next; misquitos as an endangered species?

[Frank_2001]

So I guess if you should swat the wrong fly, potentially you could be fined or jailed. Un-effing-believable!

[null and void]

Ahhhh! A flagon and a fly gun, my afternoon is made...