Over 6K acres of Rota land to become bird habitat

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife adopted a rule that would designate critical habitat for three endangered Mariana Islands species, which would include some 6,033 acres of land on Rota.

Once the amendment to the Endangered Species Act takes effect 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register, some 463 acres of private land and 5,570 acres of public land on Rota would become critical habitat for the Mariana crow.

On Guam, however, the federal agency disclosed that only 376 acres of land out of the 24,800 acres as originally proposed would become critical habitat for the Mariana crow, Mariana fruit bat, and the Guam Micronesian kingfisher. A total of 18,815 acres that were removed from the proposed critical habitat cover military-controlled lands.

“The Endangered Species Act allows us some flexibility to exclude lands from critical habitat,” said Dave Allen, the agency’s director for the Pacific region. “We developed a proposed rule based on existing scientific knowledge; now we have refined it based on biological reasons, exclusions of some military lands provided under an amendment to the Act, conservation benefits, and other considerations.”

The proposed habitat in Rota covers the Afatung Wildlife Management Area, I Chenchon Bird Sanctuary, and forested areas around the Sabana and Sinapalu plateaus, including known breeding territories of some 63 to 88 pairs of Mariana crow.

The breeding areas were identified by a Mariana crow recovery team as important conservation areas, the federal agency said, adding that the designation of critical habitat on Rota and Guam was part of a settlement on the lawsuit filed by environmental groups Mariana Audobon Society and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Originally, 6,084 acres of land on Rota were proposed as critical habitat area, the agency said.

“The Rota critical habitat is designated only for the Mariana crow since the fruit bat is not currently a listed species in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Guam Micronesian kingfisher is native only to the island of Guam,” it added.

On Guam, the critical habitat would be intended for three species—Mariana crow, Mariana fruit bat, and Guam Micronesian kingfisher.

The agency said the Andersen Air Force Base updated its plan in December 2003, and all Air Force lands proposed as critical habitat, which have an aggregate area 10,838 acres, were excluded.

The agency also excluded some 7,977 acres of Navy lands amid national security concerns raised by the military unit. Excluded private and government lands on Guam measure 1,941 acres and 2,989 acres, respectively.

“We look forward to continued and improved cooperation between the Service and Guam toward the conservation and recovery of these three species as well as other native species on the island,” Allen said.

“A critical habitat designation will not control brown tree snakes, but cooperative efforts between the federal government and the government and people of Guam to control the snakes and improve wildlife habitat may allow future generations to enjoy many native Mariana Island bird and bat species,”Allen said.