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Archives of The Cold Blooded NewsThe Newsletter of the Colorado Herpetological SocietyVolume 32, Number 6; June, 2005 |
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Deformed Frogs Are Less of a Mystery Did Triassic Monster Use Suction to Feed? Sister Group Relationship of Turtles to the Bird-Crocodilian Clade Revealed by Nuclear DNACoded Proteins Fish and Wildlife Service Proposes the American Crocodile in Florida be Downlisted from Endangered to Threatened Airport Pays Millions to Buy Snake Habitat; Feds Levied Penalty for Filling Wetlands Trends in Sex Ratios of Turtles in the United States: Implications of Road Mortality Search for a Shy Serpent PREVIOUS ISSUES May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 2004 Index 2003 Index 2002 Index Earlier Issues About the Cold Blooded News CHS Home Page |
Airport Pays Millions to Buy Snake Habitat; Feds Levied Penalty for Filling Wetlandsby Mark LarsonNews Release, The Center for North American Herpetology, Lawrence, Kansas, 29 April 2005. Originally from the Sacramento Business Journal (California) 22 April 2005.Federal regulators have put Sacramento International Airport in the reptile-housing business, and it's costing millions. After years of improperly filling wetlands at the airport, county officials now are competing with commercial developers to acquire land as habitat for Giant Garter Snakes (Thamnophis gigas). In the end, the snafu could wind up costing the airport system more than $11 million, with some of the cost passed along to the airlines that pay landing fees here. Sacramento County Airport System assistant director Rob Leonard has been making deals over the past year for the airport to buy 300 undeveloped acres in northern Sacramento and southern Sutter counties, land that other eager buyers are trying to snap up to mitigate for construction elsewhere. Federal wildlife officials ordered the buying binge as punishment for the airport's years of plowing dirt, without authorization, over wetlands that had been home to the snakes. Giant Garter Snakes are listed as threatened and protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act. "It was illegal, and they got caught," said environmental attorney Jim Pachl, who three years ago was among a group who discovered the filled-in wetlands and notified regulators. "It was clearly wrong." Copyright © 1998 - 2006, Colorado Herpetological Society. All rights reserved. | ||
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