Covered Activities
The Section 10 permit will provide coverage for effects to species resulting from the Covered Activities that Pima County or Pima County Regional Flood Control District authorizes or undertakes.
The County will cover up to approximately 36,000 acres of new ground-disturbing activities, which can come from any combination of Covered Activities. The County will reserve approximately 5,000 acres to cover its own construction and maintenance activities; the remaining 31,000 acres is allocated for ground disturbances caused by private-sector development. (See the private lands coverage webpage for additional information):
History
Over 600 public meetings and a decade of public and expert review occurred before Pima County formally applied to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a Section 10 permit. A Notice of Availability and Notice of Public Meetings for the Draft MSCP, Draft Appendices and Draft EIS were posted in the Federal Register on December 7, 2012 (77 FR 73045). The USFWS' Arizona Ecological Services website hosts these and other federal documents.
Detailed information concerning public involvement and a record of comments received during scoping and public comment periods are provided in Chapter 6 of the Final EIS. The Board memos below provide a timeline of how and why Pima County's MSCP was developed, as well as why the MSCP is good for both economic development and conservation.
Pima County Board of Supervisors' Memos
Permit Area
The area in which Pima County is seeking a Section 10 permit is known as the Permit Area and is a subset of Pima County that includes those lands under the legal authority of Pima County. The Permit Area includes:
- Private lands within unincorporated Pima County under the legal authority of Pima County; and
- Lands the County owns in fee simple and lands on which the County possesses a property right, including those located within other jurisdictions such as the cities and towns of Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley, and Sahuarita, and adjacent counties; and
- Lands on which Pima County constructs and maintains infrastructure, including lands within the incorporated areas of Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley, South Tucson or in adjacent counties (Santa Cruz, Cochise and Pinal).
- Some Bureau of Land Management Lands that Pima County might patent for open-space purposes either through the Recreation and Public Purposes Act or through future land exchanges
- State Trust lands that are:
- Leased to Pima County or used as road or drainage-way easements;
- That are sold to the private sector for development and subsequently come under the regulatory authority of Pima County;
- Where Pima County may acquire the land in fee simple.
Covered Species
Pima County's MSCP provides permit coverage for 44 species that occur in Pima County.
Plants
- Pima pineapple cactus (Coryphantha scheeri var. robustispina)
- Needle-spined pineapple cactus (Echinomastus erectocentrus var. erectocentrus)
- Huachuca water umbel (Lilaeopsis schaffneriana ssp. recurva)
- Tumamoc globeberry (Tumamoca macdougalii)
Mammals
- Mexican long-tongued bat (Choeronycteris mexicana)
- Western red bat (Lasiurus blossevillii)
- Western yellow bat (Lasiurus xanthinus)
- Lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae)
- California leaf-nosed bat (Macrotus californicus)
- Pale Townsend’s big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii pallescens)
- Merriam’s mouse (Peromyscus merriami)
Birds
- Western burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea)
- Cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl (Glaucidium brasilianum cactorum)
- Rufous-winged sparrow (Peucaea carpalis)
- Swainson’s hawk (Buteo swainsoni)
- Yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus)
- Southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus)
- Abert’s towhee (Melozone aberti)
- Arizona Bell’s vireo (Vireo bellii arizonea)
Fishes
- Longfin dace (Agosia chrysogaster)
- Desert sucker (Catostomus clarki)
- Sonora sucker (Catostomus insignis)
- Gila chub (Gila intermedia)
- Gila topminnow (Poeciliopsis occidentalis occidentalis)
Amphibians
- Chiricahua leopard frog (Lithobates chiricahuensis)
- Lowland leopard frog (Lithobates yavapaiensis)
Reptiles
- Desert box turtle (Terrapene ornata luteola)
- Sonoran desert tortoise (Gopherus morafkai)
- Tucson shovel-nosed snake (Chionactis occipitalis klauberi)
- Northern Mexican gartersnake (Thamnophis eques megalops)
- Giant spotted whiptail (Aspidoscelis stictogramma)
- Groundsnake (valley form) (Sonora semiannulata)
Invertebrates
- San Xavier talussnail (Sonorella eremita)
- Black Mountain/Papago talussnail (Sonorella ambigua ambigua syn. papagorum)
- Total Wreck talussnail (Sonorella imperatrix)
- Empire Mountain talussnail (Sonorella imperialis)
- Sonoran talussnail (Sonorella magdalensis syn. tumamocensis)
- Santa Rita talussnail (Sonorella walkeri)
- Pungent talussnail (Sonorella odorata odorata syn. marmoris)
- Posta Quemada talussnail (Sonorella rinconensis)
- Santa Catalina talussnail subspecies (Sonorella sabinoenis buehmanensis)
- Santa Catalina talussnail subspecies (Sonorella sabinoensis tucsonica)
- Las Guijas talussnail (Sonorella sitiens sitiens)
- Tortolita talussnail (Sonorella tortillita)
Mitigation Land
Mitigation is a federal requirement. It means offsetting impacts from activities covered under the permit. Thanks to voter-approved bonds for land conservation, Pima County has already banked over 70,000 acres of land to mitigate future impacts under the permit. Additional mitigation credit will come from Pima County’s ongoing stewardship of state grazing leases. The map below depicts the mitigation lands (green) in relation to the permit area (pink). For more information, see Benefits and Overview or
Frequently Asked Questions or this
Mitigation Lands report.
Flickr Photo Gallery of Mitigation Lands
MSCP Mitigation Lands Poster
Images of select mitigation lands overlaid onto map of eastern Pima County (Click on image to open in a new window):
What is ecological monitoring?
Monitoring is the repeated measurement of the same attribute over time to determine its status or trend. Monitoring allows us to periodically answer questions such as: “How many do we have?” and “Where are they located?” In recent decades ecological monitoring has grown in importance as policy makers and the general public demand more accurate information on the status and trends of a wide range of natural resources, from air quality to wildlife populations, from entire ecosystems to individual species.
Monitoring is a required element of the MSCP and will begin after Section 10 permit is finalized later in 2016. The Pima County Office of Sustainability and Conservation, Conservation Science Division is tasked with developing and implementing the program. To find out more about the County's program, visit the monitoring program website.