A Happy Marriage: Farm Bill Conservation Programs and Endangered Species Safe Harbor Agreements
Posted: 22-Feb-2007; Updated: 05-Sep-2007
Michael J. Bean, Attorney, Chair of the Wildlife Program
Two recent initiatives demonstrate the potential to marry Farm Bill program cost-share assistance with Safe Harbor regulatory assurances and thereby boost on-the-ground progress in recovering imperiled species on private land. These initiatives, in California and Hawaii, could serve as models for expanded efforts to help rare species elsewhere.
On ranches in Alameda County, California, livestock watering ponds can provide ideal breeding habitat for two federally threatened amphibians, the California red-legged frog (Rana aurora draytonii) and the California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense). As most of their natural wetland habitat disappeared, the frog and salamander turned to these manmade stockponds, which are deteriorating following decades of siltation and levee degradation. For many landowners, restoration costs are simply too high, given cheaper, modern alternatives for supplying water. However, cost-share assistance under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, administered by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, can make restoration economically practical.
To ensure that ponds are restored in a manner most likely to help the two amphibians, NRCS developed special “wildlife-friendly” pond restoration specifications. Landowners who restore ponds following these specifications are eligible to be covered by a new Safe Harbor Agreement administered by the county Resource Conservation District. Enrolling ranchers will receive regulatory assurances that their restoration work will not result in any new Endangered Species Act restrictions on their land. Thus landowners get financial help with pond restoration, regulatory assurances via the Safe Harbor Agreement and technical assistance in restoring the ponds. The frogs and salamanders get a new lease on life.
California tiger salamander. (Photo: Gerald & Buff Corsi/Copyright California Academy of Sciences)
Nene or Hawaiian goose. (Photo: Copyright Tony Beck)
In Hawaii, an even more ambitious effort seeks to encourage a wide array of conservation practices beneficial to five federally listed waterbirds, all endemic to the state:
- Hawaiian stilt (Himantopos mexicanus knudseni);
- Hawaiian coot (Fulica americana alai);
- Hawaiian moorhen (Gallinula chloropus sandvicensis);
- Hawaiian duck or koloa (Anas wyvilliana); and
- Hawaiian goose or nene (Branta sandvicensis).
A broad “umbrella” Safe Harbor Agreement administered by local Resource Conservation and Development Councils will shield landowners who implement these practices under Farm Bill conservation programs from new or additional restrictions stemming from the increased presence of the endangered birds on their property. For the first time, a Safe Harbor Agreement across an entire state is encouraging the use of Farm Bill conservation practices beneficial to endangered species. Earlier Safe Harbor Agreements in Hawaii have been highly successful, but limited to individual landowners.
Aligning the financial resources of Farm Bill conservation programs with the regulatory assurances available through Safe Harbor Agreements offers a powerful opportunity to direct more resources to landowners practicing wildlife stewardship and demonstrate the value of incentives in conserving our most imperiled wildlife.
-Michael J. Bean
Co-Director
Center for Conservation Incentives
Environmental Defense
