An easygoing desert lizard with the ability to disappear into its surroundings doesn’t deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government ruled Wednesday.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday announced it won’t list the Flat-tailed horned lizard as a threatened species because it has plenty of habitat left in its range.
Lizard defenders said the ruling is misguided and could push the reptile, described as a mini-dinosaur, closer to extinction.
People have driven the the reptile from unprotected areas in the Coachella Valley, and development threatens lizards living in a desert wildlife preserve, they say.
The ruling Wednesday follows a November 2005 court ruling that ordered the service to reconsider a decision to withdraw a proposal to list the lizard.
“We have determined this species is not at risk of becoming endangered in the foreseeable future,” said Jane Hendron, a spokesperson with U.S. Fish and Wildlife in Carlsbad.
She said the lizard’s problems in the valley don’t threaten the species as a whole.
“It is a fraction of the overall range of the species,” she said.
The ruling says 81 percent of the habitat in California, Arizona and Mexico remains intact.
Environmental groups and scientists pressing for Endangered Species Act protection disagreed with the government’s analysis.
Daniel Patterson of the Center for Biological Diversity said the government overlooked imminent threats to lizard habitat such as a proposed power line in Imperial and San Diego counties and a highway project that will accommodate more development around Yuma, Ariz.
“Fish and Wildlife service refused to look at the threats. It is just a totally political decision,” Patterson said.
Al Muth, director of the University of California’s Deep Canyon Research Center in Palm Desert concurred.
In a written statement, Muth said there is just one known population of Flat-tailed horned lizards in the Coachella Valley.
“That’s an undeniable indicator of decline for an animal that was once found in the vicinity of Snow Creek and throughout the sandy areas of the valley,” Muth stated.
The isolated population is at the Thousand Palms-based Coachella Valley Preserve. Cameron Barrows, director of the preserve, said power lines and landscaping for nearby developments provides cover for birds that swoop into the preserve and kill lizards there.
“We are finding what I call dead zones, areas where they have just been eliminated within 100 yards of the preserve edges,” Barrows said.
The proposal to list the lizard has come and gone several times since 1993.
A local plan to dedicate habitat for 27 species of plants and wildlife would have included independent protections for the lizard. But that plan, called the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan, is stalled and might not be in place for a year or longer. That leaves the lizard to fend for itself.
“It just becomes a species with virtually no protection status at all,” Barrows said.
The Flat-tailed lizard is one of several horned lizard species popular in western culture.
Their distinctive spikes, ability to flatten out or puff up and squirt blood dissuades predators. Their personable nature has drawn admirers who have formed groups dedicated to the animal.
Barrows said horned lizards are valued in part for their docile personalities.
“From the standpoint of doing research or environmental education they are a great animal,” he said. “People can hold them without them struggling or anything.”
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