Alabama Imperiled Fishes Meeting Yesterday

Andrew and I drove out yesterday afternoon for the first (annual?) Alabama Imperiled Fishes Meeting at Lake Guntersville State Park. About 30 people participated in this open roundtable, talking about various research and monitoring projects with various species around the state. The one looming crisis involves the spring pygmy sunfish (SPS), whose fragile habitat to the west of Huntsville is under threat from development (what else?). An open discussion debated the merits of petitioning the Fish & Wildlife Service to list the species under the Endangered Species Act. One landowner has most or nearly all of the habitat the species needs, which is a very specific form of spring flow running through what's essentially a flooded forest/field swamp system. This guy apparently thinks his property is worth $33 million which is hugely inflated. He's been talking to FWS for over 30 years about this situation, at least acting like he's willing to cooperate in protecting the species on land that's been in his family for a while. But now much of that area has been re-zoned for high density development, and a developer has opened an office in a nearby former cotton gin that was essentially an abandoned building in recent years. It's a complicated story that needs to be told in better detail, but in short my impression is that this guy is playing the feds & state people, playing for time until the area is being developed at which point it's too late for the fish. So most people present were of the opinion that it's better to get listing for the fish rather than pussyfoot around with this guy as he attempts to do his clever country boy shuck & jive. I agree.

We also talked briefly about flame chubs. Jim Williams was present who did many of the original collections of the species in the 60s and 70s that I was attempting to re-verify in my survey. He was at first doubtful that the species is really disappearing, but several of us prevailed on him and I think he was changing his mind as he thought about it. I hope so, I respect his opinion.