Fish and Wildlife designates habitat near Mazda Toyota plant for rare fish
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a rule Wednesday designating critical habitat for a rare fish that includes about 1,330 acres and 6.7 stream miles in Limestone and Madison counties, near the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA plant.
The Center for Biological Diversity last June sued Fish and Wildlife, claiming it failed to protect critical habitat for the spring pygmy sunfish under the Endangered Species Act. A federal court put the lawsuit on hold after Fish and Wildlife in August said it would begin the administrative steps of designating the habitat.
“These habitat protections will help guide the sunfish back from the brink of extinction and onto the path to recovery,” said Elise Bennett, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.
She said the protections will help not just the sunfish, which grows to about 1 inch in length, but will “safeguard clean water for people and secure habitat for other animals that also depend on these exceptional springs.”
The site of the $1.6 billion Mazda Toyota plant in a Huntsville-annexed portion of Limestone County is adjacent to the critical habitat of the sunfish but doesn’t overlap its boundaries, according to the service. The plant is scheduled to begin production in 2021, and construction is underway.
Bennett said the critical habitat for the sunfish includes parts of Beaverdam Spring and Creek in Limestone County, totaling 845 acres, and located north and south of the Mazda Toyota site; Pryor Spring and Branch in Limestone County, with 182 acres west of U.S. 31 and north of U.S. 72; and Blackwell Swamp and Run in Madison County, which occupies 303 acres within Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the fish now lives in the Beaverdam and Blackwell complexes. Though Pryor Spring and Branch isn’t inhabited by the species now, the service said it determined it contains suitable habitat for the fish.
The service’s final rule will be published in the Federal Register today, and becomes effective 30 days after the date of publication.
The critical habitat designation and an agreement last year in which Mazda Toyota committed $6 million for measures to protect the fish and its habitat “set up the fish to have a good future,” Bennett said. “That’s our hope.”
The center and Tennessee Riverkeeper had threatened to sue Mazda Toyota in an effort to protect the fish from the potential impact of the automotive joint venture’s plant.
The center first petitioned to protect the sunfish under the Endangered Species Act in 2009, long before Mazda Toyota plans were announced in January 2018. According to the center, Fish and Wildlife in 2013 listed the fish as a threatened species and was required to designate critical habitat at the same time. While the agency solicited public comment on the designation, it never took final action.
The critical habitat designation completes those mandatory protections for the species, according to the center.
The Fish and Wildlife Service said that in 2012 and 2014, it proposed to designate two critical habitats for the one known population of the sunfish. Last year, it reopened the comment period for the proposed critical habitat after the discovery of a population in Blackwell Swamp.
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Critical habitat designations affect only actions carried out, funded or permitted by a federal agency, according to the service.
Evan Collins, a biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service, said that if a federal agency is going to conduct an activity or provide funding for an activity, such as building a road or water pipeline, it would first have to work with the service “to make sure (the activity) doesn’t have a negative impact on the habitat.”
Of the 1,330 acres, 1,209 acres are federally owned and 121 acres are privately owned, according to the service.
