Conservation Groups Push for Devils River Minnow Habitat Protection

Endangered listing and critical habitat designation sought from Fish and Wildlife Service

Contact: Robert Corbin, private landowner: (512) 632-0314 Dr. Nicole Rosmarino, WildEarth Guardians: (505) 988-9126 x156 Jeff Miller, Center for Biological Diversity: (510) 499-9185 John Fritschie, Save Our Springs Alliance: (512) 477-2320

Conservation groups today filed a lawsuit against the U. S. Fish andWildlife Service (FWS) seeking increased protection under the EndangeredSpecies Act (ESA) for the Devils River minnow (Dionda diaboli), a highlyimperiled freshwater fish surviving in only three tributaries to the RioGrande in southern Texas and one drainage in northern Mexico. ForestGuardians, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), and Save Our SpringsAlliance (SOSA) filed suit in federal district court in New Mexico,challenging the FWS's designation of the minnow as threatened rather thanendangered under the ESA and failure to designate critical habitat for thespecies.

Robert Corbin, owner of 1,300 acres on one mile of river front on theDevil's River and a SOSA board member said, "As a river front landownercommitted to protecting our spring and river flows, I see a win-winsituation, where critical habitat designation can help recover the minnowand will assure local communities that our water is not polluted or exported."

The Devils River minnow, a small freshwater fish with a wedge-shaped spoton its tail and a distinct lateral stripe, inhabits small spring-fedstreams with fast flowing water. Once one of the most abundant of nativefishes in southern Texas, the minnow is now one of the least abundant fishspecies. Within the U.S., the minnow currently survives in very limitedlocations in three tributaries to the Rio Grande; the middle Devils River,Pinto Creek, and San Felipe Creek and may also persist in the Río Salado inChihuahua, Mexico.

"The Devils River Minnow is on the knife's edge of extinction. Designationof critical habitat for this imperiled fish is long overdue and vital,"stated Dr. Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians. "Protecting habitat forthe minnow will also help safeguard the Rio Grande ecosystem it inhabits."

Surveys have demonstrated a massive decline in population and reduction inrange of the Devils River minnow due to habitat loss from dam construction,spring dewatering, and other stream modifications. Introductions ofnon-native fish such as smallmouth bass and armored catfish havecontributed to collapse of the minnow population in Devils River, throughdirect predation, competition for food and destruction of suitable habitat.Imminent threats to the minnow include degradation of water quality fromreduced stream flow and stream channel modifications from irrigation, bankstabilization and flood control projects. These changes, in concert withdrought, have degraded native fish habitat.

"Additional Endangered Species Act protections are needed to recover theDevils River minnow and protect the natural heritage of the Rio Grandewatershed," said Jeff Miller, wildlife advocate with the CBD. "Of allcurrently listed endangered species, those with designated critical habitatare twice as likely to have improving population trends."

Although first proposed for endangered listing under the ESA in 1978, theDevils River minnow was not listed until 1999, as a threatened species. Theminnow population has decreased immensely and suffered significant rangereduction since first collected in 1951. The lawsuit alleges that the FWSviolated the ESA by failing to use the best available science indesignating the minnow as threatened rather than endangered and by refusingto designate critical habitat for the minnow, falsely asserting it wouldnot be beneficial to the species. The FWS ignored the fact that criticalhabitat provides additional protections beyond listing and is an importanttool for recovering endangered species.

"For centuries, San Felipe Springs and Fort Clark Springs and other watersof Val Verde and Kinney Counties have sustained human settlement as well asfish and other wildlife. In its last session, the Texas Legislature did notprovide protection to the springs and instead threatened to negateprotections afforded by the Kinney County Groundwater ConservationDistrict. Unfortunately, lawsuits like this are necessary to force federaland state government to protect vital wildlife habitat," notes BradRockwell, SOSA Deputy Director.

WildEarth Guardians works to preserve and restore native wildlands andwildlife in the American Southwest.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a science-based environmentaladvocacy organization that works to protect endangered species and wildplaces throughout the world through science, policy, education, citizenactivism and environmental law.

SOSA is a non-profit organization that seeks to protect the EdwardsAquifer, its springs and contributing streams, and its unique endemicfauna. SOSA is a member of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance(www.aquiferalliance.org), a coalition of local conservation organizationsspanning the entire Edwards Aquifer region.

The conservation groups are represented by attorneys and students at theUniversity of Denver College of Law's Environmental Law Clinical Partnership.

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Background Information:

The Devils River minnow has been completely eliminated from several areasin southern Texas, including the lower portions of the Devils River due toconstruction of Amistad Reservoir, the Upper Devils River due to lack ofstream flows and Las Moras Creek due to damming in the area, and has alsobeen extirpated from the Río San Carlos in Mexico.

Critical habitat provides protection of areas not currently occupied by thespecies and protects critical habitat from adverse modification. Apeer-reviewed study in the April 2005 issue of BioScience, "TheEffectiveness of the Endangered Species Act: A Quantitative Analysis,"concludes that species with critical habitat designated for two or moreyears are more than twice as likely to have improving population trendsthan species without.

FWS approved a final recovery plan for the Devils River Minnow inSeptember, which relies exclusively on voluntary recommendations. Thegroups believe the plan is insufficient not only for recovery, but toprevent the minnow's extinction.

The Devils River minnow is part of a unique fish fauna in the area wherethe Chihuahuan Desert, Edwards Plateau, and South Texas Brush ecoregionsjoin. Fishes in this area have been heavily impacted by human water use andintroduced species, and half of the native fishes of the Chihuahuan Desertin Texas and Mexico are considered imperiled, with four species alreadyhaving gone extinct. In 2003, the Rio Grande was rated by American Riversas one of the most endangered rivers in the U.S.


 

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