Comments Sought On Proposed Conservation Agreement For Texas Kangaroo Rat

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced the opening of a 30-day public comment period for a proposed programmatic Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances for the Texas kangaroo rat. The 10-year agreement with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department would involve private landowners with ranching and farming operations to address the conservation needs of the species in North-Central Texas.

"This is a collaborative, voluntary agreement that was developed with our state partner and input from private landowners," said Amy Lueders, the Service's Southwest Regional Director. "This innovative agreement will allow us to achieve the goal of conserving an imperiled species while providing regulatory certainty to the agricultural and agritourism industry in the Texas kangaroo rat's historical range. We encourage the public to review the draft agreement and associated documents and submit comments by the deadline."

The Texas kangaroo rat is a small brown mammal with a white belly, named for its hopping style of locomotion that resembles that of a kangaroo. They are declining in numbers due to multiple factors, including habitat loss.

A CCAA is a formal, voluntary agreement between the Service and non-federal landowners to conserve habitat that benefits at-risk species. In return, participating property owners receive assurances that no additional conservation measures will be required if the covered species is listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

It provides these assurances through an "enhancement of survival" permit, giving authorization to participating landowners for take that is incidental to conservation and ongoing activities covered by the CCAA. Take includes harming or killing a listed species and is prohibited under the ESA unless a permit is issued.

Under the Texas kangaroo rat CCAA, private landowners with livestock and farming operations within the historical range of the species would carry out measures to maintain and enhance existing habitat or populations of the species and support the establishment of additional populations. These conservation measures include prescribed grazing, prescribed fire, range planting and re-seeding, maintaining dirt road edges, and conserving prairie dog colonies.

he proposed CCAA covers the historical range of the species in Texas in all or portions of 11 counties: Archer, Baylor, Childress, Clay, Cottle, Foard, Hardeman, Montague, Motley, Wichita and Wilbarger.

A notice of availability for the proposed CCAA will publish in the Federal Register on Feb. 22, 2022. This will open a 30-day public comment period regarding the "enhancement of survival" permit application associated with this proposed conservation agreement.

Written comments may be submitted by one of the following methods:

• Electronically: Submit electronic comments to arles@fws.gov.

• By hard copy: Debra T. Bills, Arlington Ecological Services Field Office 2005 Northeast Green Oaks Boulevard, Suite 140, Arlington, Texas 76006, Texas; telephone 817-277-1100 ext 22113; fax 817-277-1129.