The basic idea behind a Safe Harbor agreement is that landowners who have committed to restoring or enhancing wildlife habitats on their land should not be penalized if an endangered species shows up. This is important since, as we have seen, the government’s laws for protecting endangered species are strict so that many people try to discourage the presence of an endangered species on their land. Indeed, one Tom DeWeese, when president of the American Policy Center, a conservative think tank that advocates for property rights, has been quoted (by Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press) as saying, “If you’ve got an endangered species on your land you shoot, shovel and shut up. Don’t ever tell anybody about it.”
When a Safe Harbor agreement is signed, between the landowner and the agency responsible for conserving species, the government pledges that the landowner will not incur new restrictions on his or her land if newly restored habitat attracts an endangered species. It is a relatively new conservation tool (the first was signed in 1995) and has been well received by both landowners and environmental groups.
Safe Harbor agreements are benefiting all manner of plant and animal species. Below are just two examples.
Helping the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker
In mid-2005, I visited Meredith Dreifus, her son Tod Mitchell, and other members of the family at their ranch in Texas so that I could see, firsthand, what they are doing to protect the fascinating red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis). They told me it was once common throughout a large area from Texas to Florida to Maryland, but gradually, as old-growth pine forests were logged and land converted to agricultural use, its numbers declined. In 1970, the bird was listed as endangered—a decision that did not please landowners in its range. Not until 1995, when the first Safe Harbor agreements were signed, did woodpecker numbers start to increase. By 2008, Meredith told me, these agreements have provided the woodpeckers with more than half a million acres of private land in five states, including forests, horse farms, golf course resorts, residential property—and even a monastery! All these landowners are helping to restore large tracts of their land so that the original woodpecker habitat is mimicked as closely as possible. Today there are an estimated 14,500 red-cockaded woodpeckers living in family groups on both public and privately owned lands. The goal of the project, the Mitchell family explained, is to create a corridor of suitable habitat that includes the mature longleaf pines in which the woodpeckers nest.
This particular Safe Harbor agreement requires landowners to provide artificial nesting cavities. It blew my mind to hear that it takes these woodpeckers one and a half to two years to make one nest hole! This is because, unlike other woodpeckers, they drill in live wood rather than selecting dead timber. When the hole is ready, they peck and peck at the bark around the entrance so that resin spills out and hardens, thus preventing snakes from gaining access. The holes are used for sleeping, and each bird must have one for him- or herself. Meredith showed me one of the ingenious artificial nests. A rectangular-shaped piece of wood is sawn in half so that a cavity with a passage to the exterior can be hollowed out in the center. It is then inserted into the trunk of a longleaf pine. In place of resin, strips of thin metal are hammered around each entrance. I asked how long it took for the birds to accept these slightly odd-looking prefab homes—and learned that they are lining up and waiting to move in as soon as they are finished! Which, when you come to think of the alternative—up to two years of relentless hammering on hard wood—is hardly surprising!
Helping the Chiricahua Leopard Frog
The Chiricahua leopard frog (Rana chiricahuensis) is found in Arizona and New Mexico, and was listed as threatened in 2002. One of the more endearing features of this stout, green or brown, oddly spotted frog is that it makes a funny snoring sound instead of croaking to get attention from its potential mates. But the sound of snoring around desert streams and springs is a lot quieter than it used to be. The problems faced by this frog and other aquatic species in the Southwest include ranching operations and the Sun Belt population boom that, together, have diverted waterways from their original courses, destroying water holes and disrupting many habitats. Exotic species have invaded and adversely affected the desert ecology. And the leopard frogs, along with other amphibians, have been hard hit by the dreaded chytrid fungal disease. They need all the help they can get.
How fortunate, then, that ranchers Matt and Ann Magoffin and their family, along with other volunteer landowners, agreed to take part in a Safe Harbor agreement that covers a total of one million acres. Most of that land is public, but some is owned by ranchers, including the Magoffins. Their contribution has been truly outstanding. They rebuilt cattle watering tanks, put in wells, poured concrete ponds, and, during four successive drought years, moved tadpoles from natural pools that were drying up to the new habitat they had created. Each year they truck some thousand gallons of water per week to replenish a stock tank on their ranch. No wonder biologist Jim Rorabaugh of the US Fish and Wildlife Services in Phoenix believes that the Magoffins have played a key role in the conservation of this frog.
