Fish and Wildlife Proposes Habitat For Threatened Fish

December 21, 2005

Release from: Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to designate 633 miles of streams and rivers in New Mexico and Arizona as critical habitat for two small fish listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The habitat for the spikedace and loach minnows would include portions of the Gila, San Francisco, Blue, Black, Verde and Lower San Pedro rivers and some tributaries in Apache, Cochise, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, Pima, Pinal and Yavapai counties in Arizona and Catron, Grant and Hidalgo counties in New Mexico.

The designation, which includes a 300-foot buffer zone on the banks, would encompass waterways through federal, state and private lands.

The agency has twice before designated critical habitat for the two fish, but the earlier designations were struck down by federal courts.

The agency issued a critical habitat designation after the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity sued in 1993. A federal appeals court overturned the designation on the grounds that the federal government failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act.

Fish and Wildlife again designated critical habitat in May 2000. That resulted in yet another lawsuit from the center, which contended Fish and Wildlife continued to allow grazing in proposed critical habitat.

Both threatened fish species, which are less than 3 inches long, require perennial streams where they live in shallow areas, and moderate to swift currents.

Fish and Wildlife has said the loach minnow currently lives in only 15 to 20 percent of its historical range and the spikedace in only 10 to 15 percent.