A heads-up from Helena FWS re: developer-written BiOps. Keith Subject: Fw: Greenwire Article -- FWS: Developers help author wildlife assessments To: keith@swanview.org From: Mark_Wilson@fws.gov Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 09:27:19 -0600 Keith: This sort of thing is likely coming to Montana in the near future too. Mark ----- Forwarded by Mark Wilson/R6/FWS/DOI on 05/17/2006 09:25 AM ----- bridget_fahey@fws .gov To 05/17/2006 09:06 mark_wilson@fws.gov, AM anne_vandehey@fws.gov cc Subject Greenwire Article -- FWS: Developers help author wildlife assessments I guess some offices are already doing this...my guess is that it would be at your discretion to do the same. Greenwire Tuesday, May 16, 2006 FWS: Developers help author wildlife assessments The Fish and Wildlife Service allows developers to write biological opinions on whether their projects would hurt animal populations, according to an e-mail obtained by the St. Petersburg Times last week. The March 2005 e-mail said that, because of the load of other projects FWS was handling, it asked developers involved in a project that affected Florida panther protection to write their own BOs. "To speed things up (due to our heavy workload) we are asking the consultant for each project that adversely affects panthers to prepare a BO based on a template BO that we will send you," federal biologist John Wrublik wrote in the e-mail to RaeAnn Boylan, a consultant for a Lee County project to widen a road through panther habitat. Paul, Wrublick's boss at FWS's Vero Beach office, said it is normal to ask developers to write up a BO, but stressed that FWS writes the species analysis. "What we do ask them to provide us are the details of the project - what is the habitat impact? What is the impact on panthers, based on their understanding?" said Wrulick, adding that FWS used the same approach with other species decisions, including manatees. It was unclear if FWS approved the project, which would widen a two-lane rural road into a divided multi-lane highway and wipe out about 20 acres of land used by panthers. "It's a shame," Steven Williams, founder of the Florida Panther Society, said of the e-mail. "We pay the government ... to protect us and protect the environment, and they have turned it over to people who wish to use it and abuse it" (Craig Pittman, St. Petersburg Times, May 12). -- EB Want more stories like this every day? Sign up for a free trial and get the best environmental and energy policy coverage available. Go to http://www.eenews.net/trial/ Watch OnPoint every day to see interviews with key environment and energy policy makers. Go to http://www.eande.tv Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC E&E DAILY -- GREENWIRE -- E&ENews PM -- LAND LETTER -- E&ETV Phone: 202-628-6500 Copyright 2006 http://www.eenews.net -- Keith Hammer - Chair Swan View Coalition 3165 Foothill Road Kalispell, MT 59901 406-755-1379 (ph/fax) keith@swanview.org http://www.swanview.org "People Helping People Help the Earth."