Thousands of acres have been removed from the required review area for the Thurston County gopher review process for construction permits.
The removal of 23,000 acres based on soil type is one of three changes the county announced to this year’s gopher review process, according to a press release Friday. That’s good news to many rural Thurston County residents frustrated by the process and the limitations it places on their ability to alter their land.
The process was put in place as four subspecies of the Mazama pocket gopher are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Local community and business groups have filed a lawsuit against the county on the matter.
Soil types are the primary indicator for finding the endangered pocket gophers, and site surveys indicated a very low likelihood of finding gophers on the soils removed from the list, according to the press release.
Other changes include in-office evaluations of permit applications to remove those that may be exempt from the 2016 process.
In the third change, the county is asking permit applicants with scheduled gopher reviews to mow Scotch broom and heavy grasses by the end of March, or immediately after they submit an application flagged for gopher review. Overgrowth slows down the review teams and creates a need for additional visits, stated the release.
County officials said the seasonal gopher reviews may soon come to an end.
The county is working to develop a Prairie Habitat Conservation Plan. If approved by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it will lead to a 30-year incidental take permit from USFWS, which could allow the county to issue construction permits year round, stated the release.
The implementation of the plan could speed up the permit process and help permit applicants comply with state and federal species protection laws, stated the release.
The plan has not yet been finalized, but county officials said they are working with various groups to fund the plan and to find offsetting mitigation land.
A draft of the plan will be available for review later this year.
The remainder of this year’s process is expected to be similar to last year’s with up to three site visits from U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists and county staff between June 1 and Oct. 31. Each visit has to be at least 30 days apart with the third visits in September of October.
The county conducts thorough, systematic site reviews prior to issuing permits in an effort to comply with state and federal endangered species laws and to protect the county, and its permit holders from liability under those laws.
Not all projects are affected by gopher reviews. The reviews are only required for construction projects that are ground disturbing and proposed within mapped gopher soils.
Only one-eighth of more than 4,000 construction permit applications received by the county in 2015 required the reviews.
The gophers are listed on the federal Endangered Species Act. The act prohibits the “take” of listed species through direct harm or habitat destruction. An amendment to the ESA allows the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue permits for the “incidental take” of endangered and threatened wildlife species.
Permit holders are able to proceed with an activity that is legal in all other aspects, but that results in the incidental harm or habitat destruction of a federally protected species, stated the release.
To get a permit, applicants like Thurston County are required to make a conservation plan to minimize or mitigate harm to the impacted species during a proposed project.
To learn more about the county’s 2016 Gopher Review Process, go online to www.thurstonplanning.org.
