FIVE SPECIES TRY TO SURVIVE ON VIRGIN RIVER FLOOD PLAIN

The fate of five fish and bird species on the Virgin River flood plain hinges on a plan that a team of federal and local agencies is crafting in hopes that development near Mesquite can coexist with them.

A conservation group, however, fears that the recovery program won't reverse the downward spiral of the Southwestern willow flycatcher, Yuma clapper rail, yellow-billed cuckoo, woundfin and Virgin River chub.

Actions taken during a 2005 flood took a toll on some areas where the species live. All of them are federally protected endangered species except the cuckoo, which is a candidate for listing.

The conservation group is expected to weigh in when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service holds a pair of public meetings this month to field suggestions on how the program should be developed and carried out.

"The Virgin River species are very imperiled and heading in the wrong direction," said Kieran Suckling, policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity. "We'll definitely follow this closely."

Despite the flood, he said, the overall trend of years of drought, coupled with the effects of population growth in the area, has caused the river's conditions and shoreline habitat to deteriorate.

"Water levels are getting lower, not higher, and the they're heading for a train wreck," Suckling said.

"I wish I could have higher hopes, but the track record of the feds is fairly weak and the track record of Mesquite is worse. It's just a mess. It's a mess up there," he said last week by telephone from his office in Tucson, Ariz.

"Up there" is a stretch of the Virgin River that runs from two miles upstream of the Nevada-Arizona border to a confluence where it enters Lake Mead.

That stretch of the lower Virgin River includes Mesquite and parts of nonfederal lands in Clark County targeted for development around the towns of Bunkerville and Riverside.

Bob Williams, field supervisor in Nevada for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said he hopes the program will be "a positive thing for fish and wildlife resources and for the city working together."

Williams said recovering rare birds and fish on the lower Virgin River is important to maintain diversity in wildlife.

"We have a moral responsibility to protect those things in nature and in the world that have been here forever," Williams said.

Despite normally low levels, the Virgin and nearby Muddy rivers swelled during the flood of January 2005 to the point that at least 120 homes were damaged.

At the same time, a critical habitat for some of the species was bulldozed to keep the river from enveloping more homes and a middle school.

Williams said the flood delayed the agency's habitat protection and species recovery plans.

A few years before, public land sales had paved the way for development to expand in larger areas around Mesquite, 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

That prompted the need for a species plan.

"What we're doing is cooperative and proactive for the city so it can grow," Williams said, describing Mesquite as "an honest partner in trying to work with us in support of the species as well as a development scenario that works for them."

Williams acknowledged that the flood and measures that were taken because of it impacted stands of shoreline trees that were critical to endangered birds.

"I know we probably lost some flycatcher habitat and Yuma clapper rail habitat," he said.

Besides habitat in Mesquite that was bulldozed and some nonemergency channel relocation work in Mesquite allowed by the Army Corps of Engineers, an effort to repair flood-damaged railroad tracks along Lincoln County's Meadow Valley Wash in February 2005 caused significant damage to Southwestern willow flycatcher habitat there.

"The habitat conservation plan has specific minimizations to avoid any more loss of flycatcher habitat," Williams said.

He said funding and participation by the entities, which include the National Park Service and local water agencies, will be vital to implementing the program.

To protect the endangered Virgin River chub and woundfin populations, Williams said biologists are considering removing nonnative fish, such as red shiners and catfish, and constructing barriers to keep them from entering the river from Lake Mead.

Suckling said he wonders how effective the agencies' species recovery program will be.

"Are they actually going to change in a manner to fix the problem, or change in the perception that they're fixing the problem?" he asked.

Announcement of the public comment period came as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was preparing to mark National Wildlife Refuge Week, which runs through Saturday.

The service manages the 97 million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 547 national wildlife refuges, including the Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Southern Nevada.

The service also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 63 fish and wildlife management offices, and 81 ecological services field stations.

It is charged with enforcing federal wildlife laws, administering the Endangered Species Act, managing migratory bird populations, restoring nationally significant fisheries and conserving wildlife habitat such as wetlands.

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at (702) 383-0308 or krogers@reviewjournal.com.