 |
|
FWS says tiger salamander protections would cost $336M
GREENWIRE, 10/26/05
Protecting the endangered California tiger salamander in Sonoma County, Calif., would cost $336 million in lost economic development over the next 20 years, according to a Fish and Wildlife Service study released yesterday.
The draft economic analysis, conducted by a private consulting firm for the agency, said that setting aside 74,000 acres of critical habitat for the amphibian would cost $210 million in mitigation costs and $114 million in development delays.
The Fish and Wildlife Service first listed the salamander as endangered in 2002, but last year the agency downgraded the species to threatened status. In August, a federal judge ruled to reclassify the California tiger salamander as endangered in California's Sonoma and Santa Barbara counties (AP/San Francisco Chronicle online, Oct. 25).
The public has until Nov. 14 to comment on the new analysis.
| |
|
|
|
|
