Last week's Madill Record (2/12/2015) reported "County Not Happy with Govt's Handling of Beetle."
The American Burying Beetle (ABB) was portrayed as a costly obstacle to housing development, oil and gas pipeline construction, and road projects. Our county commissioners apparently want it removed from the Endangered Species list to save money. But there was no estimate of increased project costs, or the important role the ABB plays in wildlife ecology, or why the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USF&WS) wants to continue the beetle's successful reintroduction in eastern Oklahoma.
In fact, this very special beetle, along with the American bald eagle, are two of the success stories of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1973. While the bald eagle was taken off the Threatened Species list in 2007, it is still protected by federal laws. Unfortunately, the ABB is still vulnerable especially from oil and gas exploration.
Even so, last May the USF&WS approved an Industry Conservation Plan to protect the American burying beetle while permitting drilling and pipeline construction on more than 32,000 acres in 45 counties including Marshall, Love, Johnson and Bryan counties.
[ http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/oklahoma/documents/abb/abb_icp/final%20icp%2020140521%20with%20signatures.pdf ]
According to "The Oklahoman" (2/15/15 - "Protecting beetle may carry an expensive price tag") there are several other counties across the state moving forward with resolutions to remove the ABB from the Endangered Species list. Cleveland, Ottawa, Muscogee, Osage, Woodward, and Canadian counties have either adopted a resolution or are considering one. Woodward and Canadian counties are outside the beetle's current habitat. A road widening project in Tecumseh, OK calculated a whopping $5,100 in additional beetle related costs for the $2.4 million project, of which $1.9 million comes from federal sources. That beetle protection comes to .2125 % or about 1/5 of one percent of total project costs.
Republican state senator Josh Brecheen was a field rep for U.S. Senator Tom Coburn in 2009. I informed Brecheen of several federal laws including the Endangered Species Act which I believe were violated by the sale of public lands at Lake Texoma to Pointe Vista. He said that Senator Coburn didn't believe that a black beetle should hold up important developments. I never mentioned the beetle. He did. And he never mentioned the bald eagle; just the beetle.
If there are no ABBs in Marshall County, then Pointe Vista's Environmental Impact Statement begun in 2009 would have helped to prove that. Since Pointe Vista abandoned the environmental study in 2011, we really have no clear data on the environmental impacts of their proposed 3,000 acre project on the ABB, or bald eagles, or other protected plants or animals, or the air or the water. No field surveys were ever completed.
Our county commissioners may feel that beetle conservation banks are "ridiculous," but professional biologists and private farmers and ranchers who are helping protect beetle habitat tend to disagree. Without the Endangered Species Act and federal funding and public/private cooperation, the American bald eagle would have become extinct long ago. The same is true for the ABB and many hundreds of plant and animal species which have been protected over the past forty years.
It's unfortunate that the county commissioners believe the ABB is a nuisance or "a joke" instead of something to value for its critical role in soil ecology. Fish and wildlife, including insects, are part of the Commons, like the air and the water. Federally protected endangered species should not be treated as if their protection is optional. To learn more about the ABB, Search online: "American Burying Beetle." It is a very cool bug!
