SAN ANTONIO (AP) - When construction began in 2012 on a new intersection at Loop 1604 and Texas 151, the work crew at the site every day included a biologist to look out for endangered species.

As crews were excavating deep into the limestone to build an underpass, the scientist encountered a tiny, otherworldly creature that would quickly bring the $15 million project to a halt.

“While investigating one of these karst features, he discovered cicurina venii, the Bracken Cave meshweaver,” Josh Donat, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation, told the San Antonio Express-News (https://bit.ly/1Hi8F6A). “The thing that was unique about this spider is that it had been seen only once before in recorded history.”

In short order, the karst pocket was sealed, work stopped and the construction contract was terminated. Only now is the project being revived, after a major redesign that replaces the tunnel with an overpass and adds about $30 million to the cost.

The discovery of the rare, translucent spider and the resulting upheaval was just the latest example of clashes in Bexar County between rapid growth and a number of threatened and endangered species in the path of development.

Bexar County has more than doubled its population to 1.8 million people in 40 years, and San Antonio’s footprint has grown from 185 square miles in 1970 to 427 square miles today.

While compromises have set aside some protected areas - and famously led to Edwards Aquifer pumping limits - thousands of acres of habitat have been wiped out.

In the long run, endangered creatures have not always been adequately protected. In the past 20 years, nine invertebrates have been added to the federal endangered species list in Bexar County.

“There is always tension between endangered species and development, and it’s even more complex in Bexar County. There are like 28 listed species here,” said John Herron of the Nature Conservancy.

To help resolve the tension, a Habitat Conservation Plan devised by builders, the city of San Antonio and Bexar County, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, could be in place as soon as next summer.

Current law requires developers who think endangered species are on their land to apply for a permit from U.S. Fish and Wildlife, do expensive and time-consuming studies, and arrange for mitigation if critical habitat will be destroyed.

Under the habitat plan, the city and county will handle most of the heavy lifting.

“The plan will streamline the process and make it attractive to developers to follow the law,” said Andrew Winter, the Bexar County environmental engineer.

“And the conservationists will get what they want: Preserves set aside that are big enough so it can actually become a sanctuary for endangered species,” he said.

Bexar County is unusual, Herron said, in part because of the strange subterranean creatures found in caverns and karst formations across the northern part of the county along the Edwards Aquifer’s recharge zone.

The recharge zone also sits at the edge of the Texas Hill Country and woodlands that are desirable for subdivisions. As a result, development has pushed north for decades.

“Sometimes, the endangered species get a bad rap but they just mean something sensitive is living there. In some ways they are an early warning system for us,” Herron said.

And the inevitable conflicts between sensitive species and development sometimes take dramatic turns.

A suit by the Sierra Club 30 years ago nearly resulted in federal oversight over regional pumping from the aquifer, alarming local officials. Instead, the lawsuit fostered creation of the Edwards Aquifer Authority, and pumping rules to protect the creatures in the springs north of San Antonio.

In all, seven aquatic species, including tiny fish called fountain darters and gambusias, are listed as endangered in the Edwards ecosystem. Biologists believe the gambusia has been extinct since at least 1982.

Under the limits, aquifer users must reduce pumping when springflows in New Braunfels and San Marcos recede during droughts and threaten the protected amphibians, fish and other creatures there.

“It meant we had to immediately change our city’s policies on how we use water. So we embarked on very aggressive water conservation. We reduced per-capita water use over the last 30 years by 40 percent,” San Antonio Water System spokesman Greg Flores said.

In northern Bexar County, thousands of acres of sensitive habitat have been swallowed up by subdivisions and shopping malls. So much golden-cheeked warbler habitat vanished around Camp Bullis that a few years ago military officials began to fear the base was turning into a giant bird sanctuary and that operations would be compromised.

The crisis was averted in 2011 when the Army, Bexar County and the Nature Conservancy acquired a 1,244-acre tract for use as a preserve on the Comal-Bexar County line, easing the pressure on the 28,000-acre military installation.

Just this year, a collaborative effort involving the city, Nature Conservancy and others led to the $20 million purchase of land that had been slated for development near Bracken Cave north of San Antonio, summer home to a colony of an estimated 25 million Mexican free-tail bats.

The bats arrive every spring and remain until the fall. And while they aren’t federally protected, they, too, were threatened by adjacent development.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, which is charged with protecting endangered species, says not all South Texas developers play by the rules. Some do not conduct the required studies, get permits and provide mitigation by acquiring suitable habitat elsewhere to offset damage they cause.

“It comes to our attention somewhat frequently,” said Adam Zerrenner, endangered species field supervisor for the USFWS in Austin. “Usually, we’ll reach out to that entity and say we believe that endangered species are on that property, and we want to work with you to comply with the law and get a permit.”

“There may be some cases where we notify law enforcement and then they would open an investigation,” he said.

But making a prosecutable case that critical habitat was illegally destroyed is difficult after the land in question has been cleared.

Dave Hubbard, resident agent in charge of law enforcement for the USFWS in San Antonio, said about a half-dozen such cases have been investigated in Bexar County in the past five years with none resulting in criminal charges.

“Most are settled civilly. The developer says, ‘Look, I messed up,’ and comes to the table with a settlement offer,” he said.

Zerrenner said the new conservation plan offers a better way to manage development and protect endangered species.

It will be similar to a habitat plan in Austin that has been in place since 1996 and proven successful, he said.

“A lot of benefits come with these plans. There is less piecemealing, more streamlining and more conservation,” Zerrenner said.

Bexar County’s plan, called the Southern Edwards Plateau Habitat Conservation Plan, covers the northern half of the county and applies to nine specific endangered species, including the warbler, the black-capped vireo and seven invertebrates.

Five years in the works, it is designed to remain in place for 30 years, during which time Bexar County’s population is projected to grow to more than 2.5 million.

“Just last week the final plan went to the Fish and Wildlife Service regional office, and we expect to start the environmental impact statement anytime. Public hearings will probably start in January,” said Winter, the county environmental engineer.

Under the plan, the Fish and Wildlife Service will grant a permit to San Antonio and Bexar County for the covered habitat area, and then allow the two local governments to process development projects in sensitive areas and arrange for mitigation of the damage.

The plan aims to standardize and speed the permitting process. It also would add about 30,000 acres of protected land in unincorporated areas of the county.

“Right now, the process is very hard to follow, it’s hard to do it right and it’s very expensive,” Winter said. “With the plan in place, we’ve already done all the legal work, so that cost goes way down, and three years of time goes away. All you have to do is pay us for what it costs to buy the other land, maybe $4,000 an acre.”

Citing a hypothetical example of a North Side developer dealing with endangered species habitat, Winter explained how the new plan will work.

“Say you’ve got some land in The Dominion area but it’s got golden-cheeked warbler habitat on it. You can’t develop it because you’d be taking those golden-cheeked warblers, which is a federal crime,” he said.

“When this plan is in place, you, Mr. Developer can buy mitigation so that you can develop that land. It could take two weeks. Without this, it would take you three years, cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees,” he said.

While the original concept included eight regional counties, the other seven backed out over what Winter says were misplaced fears of Bexar dominating the entity.

“The misinformation came from a small group of individuals who were trying to convince the public in the outlying counties that the Habitat Conservation Plan was a government taking of their land, that we’d move in and condemn their land and not pay them fair prices,” he said. “It’s absolutely wrong. The HCP doesn’t have the authority to do condemnations.”

Ultimately, he said, Bexar County decided to go it alone. Over the four-year planning process, input came from an advisory committee with a wide range of interested parties, including land owners, conservationists, developers and public officials.

Michael Moore, president of Ironstone Homes, who is developing a large project on the Northwest Side, served on the advisory committee. He is cautiously optimistic that the new plan will serve both builders and conservationists.

“It’s an improvement over the status quo. Under the current rules, if you are doing one of these by yourself, you may end up seeing different standards along the way,” he said. “Really, what you got is a trade-off. You’ll probably be paying more under the conservation plan, but you’ll be getting it done in six to eight weeks, as opposed to a couple of years.”

His only worry is that Bexar County might be reluctant to budget the money necessary to get the plan rolling until it generates sufficient revenue. The plan will require unspecified budget outlays from the city and county and fees on developers.

Some developers apparently already see the advantages of the new plan.

“I have a suspicion several developments are on hold. I get calls almost every day from developers asking when the plan will be in place,” Winter said. “I suspect they know they have golden-cheeked warblers on their property, and want to use the new process. That’s very good from my perspective.”

David Ribble, chairman of the biology department at Trinity University, has been closely watching the land-use changes in Bexar County for 23 years, and he’s not comforted by all he sees.

“I am very concerned about the status of things. We have had our success stories. The recent saving of Bracken Cave is a glorious success story. I was down at the Mitchell Lake wetland just the other day to celebrate our 20 years of effort down there to preserve habitat for migratory shore birds,” he said.

But he said continued development in sensitive areas over the aquifer recharge zone is worrisome.

“At the same time, the thing that is alarming is that some of these species that, in my view are very good bio-indicators of the health of our ecosystem, the cave invertebrates, are the ones in trouble,” he said. “The reason they are good indicators is that they largely live on the recharge zone, and as we pave that over, it does not bode well for our water supply.”

With growth in Bexar Count projected to continue at a furious pace, Ribble believes opportunities have been missed to preserve habitat and protect sensitive creatures.

“The Texas mentality is that we’ve always been able to drive our car out of San Antonio into the wide open spaces. But that’s not happening now, and it’s too late,” he said.

And while he applauds the ideals of habitat conservation plans, he said the one planned for northern Bexar County cannot reclaim the large areas of sensitive habitat already lost to development.

In Travis County, he said, where a similar plan started in 1996, far more was accomplished.

“One of the good things that came out of that was the preservation of a really big chunk of land outside of Austin. Now, 20 years later, we’re just doing it,” he said.

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Information from: San Antonio Express-News, https://www.mysanantonio.com

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