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By Jon Klusmire
Register Staff 10-23-2007
Bishop will be the site of an extensive informational session and public hearing concerning designating about 400,000 acres of the Eastern Sierra as “critical habitat” for the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service originally proposed the habitat designation earlier this summer, and recently extended the deadline for public comments on the plan and added two public hearings to the process.
The FWS will be taking public comments at hearings in Bishop and Bridgeport, and will continue to take comments until the Nov. 23 deadline.
The meeting in Bishop will be on Thursday, Oct. 24, at the Tri-County Fairgrounds. The meeting will start with an “open house” from 4-5 p.m., followed by the formal public hearing from 6-8 p.m.
The Inyo County Board of Supervisors pressed the FWS to conduct at least public meetings in Inyo and Mono counties, which are the two counties where the vast majority of the proposed, designated critical habitat is located.
There will be an “informational open house” only in Bridgeport, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at Memorial Hall, 744 N. School St., from 1-3 p.m.
The FWS has proposed a total of 417,577 acres be designated as critical habitat for the bighorns. About 416,407 acres are on federally managed lands, 1,005 acres are on private land with the final 165 acres managed by local government.
The move to designate critical habitat for the bighorns comes in response to a court order stemming from a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity.
A “critical habitat” designation does not automatically change how federal lands are managed or change the current uses of the land, but does require an additional review by the FWS to ensure that any activity or project does not adversely impact the designated critical habitat, according to the FWS.
The areas proposed for the designation are broken down into 12 “units,” and stretch from Mt. Warren west of Mono Lake in the north, to Olancha Peak, west of the Owens Dry Lake, in the south.
“The acreage includes open upland, montane and alpine habitats with rocky areas along the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains from about 4,000 feet to approximately 14,500 feet,” according to a press release from the FWS.
The areas proposed as critical habitat include the two currently state-designated California Bighorn Sheep Zoological Areas, located on the front of the Sierra between Mt. Whitney and Onion Valley and north of Onion Valley to the Division Creek area.
There is always some confusion about what a “critical habitat” designation does and doesn’t do.
According to the FWS, “critical habitat is a term in the Endangered Species Act … The designation of critical habitat does not affect land ownership or establish a refuge, wilderness, reserve, preserve or other conservation area.”
When federal agencies “undertake, fund or permit” activities that may affect critical habitat, those agencies “are required to consult with (FWS) to ensure such actions do onto adversely modify or destroy designated critical habitat.”
In general, critical habitat is protected through “cooperative measures” outlined in the Endangered Species Act, with management policies and guidelines being the most common approaches to safeguarding the habitat in question, the FWS said.
In Inyo County, the habitat designations start in the Wheeler Ridge area, from Evolution Creek to the south, Mt. Tom in the middle and Mono Creek to the north.
Then there’s a bit of a gap in the proposed habitat designation. The next unit, Taboose Creek, starts at Big Pine Creek and stretches to Taboose Creek to the south.
Then the next two units run right up to each other, and cover the Sawmill Canyon area, north of Independence, and Mt. Baxter area, west of Independence. There is a bit of a narrow break at Onion Valley, and the Mt. Williamson unit covers the land from Onion Valley to Mt. Whitney. Again, there is a break in the land designation around Mt. Whitney, and then the last units in Inyo County include the Langley Peak and the Olancha Peak area, west of the Owens Dry Lake.
Written comments on the proposal should be submitted to the Field Supervisor, Nevada Fish and Wildlife Office, 1340 Financial Blvd., Suite 234, Reno, NV 89502, by e-mail to
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, or by facsimile to (775) 861-6301. Written comments will be accepted until Nov. 23, 2007.
A copy of the proposal and other information is available on the Internet at www.fws.gov/nevada.
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