Tiny Crustacean Finally Gets a Break

Prompted by a legal settlement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating 36,501 acres in Southern California--including parkland in Orange County--as “critical habitat” for the endangered San Diego fairy shrimp.

Activists and officials agree that the tiny crustacean, once common in the Southland, has been driven to the brink of extinction by development. But environmentalists say the federal agency’s policy of not designating habitat without legal prodding may have contributed to the creature’s decline.

“Things don’t look very promising for [the fairy shrimp in] Orange County. It’s very possible that if the service had designated habitat in a timely manner, we would have been able to do a better job conserving the species,” said Dan Silver, coordinator of the Endangered Habitats League.

“This just shows how Orange County was developed with no regard for the ecosystem.”

The vast majority of the proposed habitat, which was announced Wednesday, is in San Diego County; only 247 acres are in Orange County. The designation does not affect private landowners’ rights or create preserves; it only affects activity on that land that receives federal funding or requires federal regulatory approval, said Joan Jewett, spokeswoman for the service’s regional headquarters in Portland.

Under the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973, land crucial to a species’ survival must be designated as “critical habitat” once the species is listed as endangered or threatened.

The San Diego fairy shrimp is one of six types of fairy shrimp in Southern California. Answering a separate lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed last month to propose critical habitat for the Riverside fairy shrimp. Some of that habitat will probably be in Orange County.

Fairy shrimp live in vernal pools, which are temporary wetlands created by spring and winter rains. Discovered in 1993 and listed as endangered in 1997, the San Diego fairy shrimp live only a few months. They die as the pools evaporate, leaving eggs that lie dormant during the dry months and hatch the following winter.

The dime-sized shrimp used to be common throughout Orange, San Diego and Los Angeles counties and Baja California. They are no longer found in Los Angeles County. In Orange County, the species is found only in Fairview Regional Park in Costa Mesa.

Officials estimate 90% to 97% of Southern California’s vernal pools have been lost to development.

“Vernal pools are a pretty unique type of habitat,” Jewett said. “Even though they may seem like muddy little puddles, they are actually highly complicated little ecosystems that have a wide variety of species in them.”

Vernal pools also exist in Trabuco Canyon and South County, but there are no known San Diego fairy shrimp populations in these areas, said Jim Bartel, assistant field supervisor with the service’s Carlsbad office.

However, critical habitat designation is supposed to include not only existing habitat, but potential habitat, said Andrew Wetzler, a staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Los Angeles office.

“Any time you have a situation where a species range has shrunk dramatically, it’s a very basic principle of conservation biology that you need to protect that species’ ability to expand for it to recover,” he said. “Fish and Wildlife Service has done everything humanly possibly to apply [the Endangered Species Act] as narrowly as possible. It bends over backward not to enforce . . . the act--this is just one more example.”

Like other recent habitat designation cases, Wednesday’s announcement was the result of a lawsuit against the service by environmentalists. The Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity sued U.S. Fish and Wildlife in 1998 and settled when the service agreed to designate habitat in September 1999.

Federal officials say critical habitat designation affords little extra protection while stretching the agency’s scant resources, which are better spent adding species to the endangered and threatened lists.

However, environmentalists counter that designating habitat is a key tenet of the Endangered Species Act.

“By consciously delaying [habitat designation] for a number of years, Fish and Wildlife Service has encouraged habitat to be destroyed,” Wetzler said. “We have had to fight the service tooth and nail to get critical habitat designation for a wide variety of species.”

Legal settlements or court orders have resulted in designation, proposals or impending proposals of critical habitat for more than 200 species, including the threatened California gnatcatcher.

The slew of legal losses has led the service to reconsider its policy of not designating habitat. A revised policy is expected to be released in April, Jewett said.

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San Diego Fairy Shrimp

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed designating 36,501 acres of land in Southern California--including a park in Orange County--as “critical habitat” for the San Diego fairy shrimp. No known populations of the shrimp, once common in the area, remain in Los Angeles County. The crustacean is found in one spot in Orange County and a few seasonal wetlands in San Diego County.

Branchinecta sandiegonesis (female shown)

Description: Small freshwater crustacean with elongated body, large stalked eyes and 11 pairs of legs; swims upside down by beating its legs.

Length: 0.4 to 0.6 inches

Reproduction: Microscopic eggs; may remain unhatched for more than a year

Habitat: Shallow vernal pools that fill during winter rains

Diet: Algae, bacteria and protozoa

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service