PROMOTING RECOVERY OR HEDGING A BET AGAINST EXTINCTION: AUSTIN, TEXAS'S RISKY APPROACH TO ENSURING ENDANGERED SPECIES' SURVIVAL IN THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY

Collisions between development plans and habitat preservation efforts for species protected under the Endangered Species Act are increasing. In an effort to find more preventative and mutually agreeable approaches to protecting endangered species habitat, environmentalists, government managers, and developers have begun to use cooperative regional planning approaches. Habitat Conservation Plans, a prerequisite to obtaining an incidental take permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service, provide the current regional planning tool of choice. Incidental take permits are issued and development in endangered species habitat is allowed if the HCP contains a conservation plan to aid the recovery of the endangered or threatened species affected by the development. Ideally, the HCP process would lead to more concentrated development and protection of areas most critical to endangered species recovery. However, as the saga of the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan illustrates, ambitious habitat conservation planning has led to strong political roadblocks and the failure to protect sufficient habitat for endangered species recovery.