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**Southwest Region (Arizona ● New Mexico ● Oklahoma ●Texas)
[http://southwest.fws.gov](http://southwest.fws.gov/)**

**Arkansas River Shiner \-- July 29, 2005**

The Arkansas River shiner *Notropis girardi* is a small, heavy-bodied
minnow with a rounded snout and small mouth. Its coloration tends to be
sandy above and silver laterally, grading to white on the belly. Dorsal
scales are typically outlined with dark pigment. The shiner feeds mostly
on aquatic invertebrates. It is believed to spawn during the months of
May, June and July in conjunction with flows following heavy rains. Eggs
drift with the current during high flows until hatching occurs. If
conditions are favorable, the shiner may reproduce several times during
this period.

The shiner is native to wide, sandy-bottomed streams of the Arkansas
River drainage in Arkansas, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Historically, it was abundant throughout these portions of the Arkansas
River and its major tributaries. The shiner is presently almost entirely
restricted to the Canadian/South Canadian River in Oklahoma, Texas, and
New Mexico, a distance of about 508 river miles. A small, relict
population is believed to remain in the upper Cimarron River in Kansas
and Oklahoma. A remnant population also may persist in the Beaver/North
Canadian River of OK, based on collection of only four individuals since
1990. However, in 2001, biologists conducted an extensive survey on the
Beaver/North Canadian River and failed to find Arkansas River shiners.

Surveys in the Arkansas River Basin from 1976 to 2002 documented that
the shiner has disappeared from more than 80 percent of its historic
range in the last 40 years. The species is threatened by habitat
destruction and modification from stream dewatering or depletion due to
diversion of surface water and groundwater pumping, construction of
impoundments, and water quality degradation.

Competition with introduced fishes contributed to diminished
distribution and abundance of the shiner in the Cimarron River.
Incidental capture of the shiner and potential introductions of
non-native minnows during pursuit of commercial baitfish species also
may contribute to reduced population sizes. The adverse affects of
drought and other natural factors are only exacerbated by the impacts
mentioned above.

The Arkansas River shiner first received consideration as a candidate
for listing under the Endangered Species Act after a nationwide review
of vertebrate species was conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service in 1985. Mr. Jimmie Pigg with the Oklahoma Department of
Environmental Quality first provided detailed information on the status
of the species in Oklahoma to the Service in 1989. Additional
information on the shiner was obtained by the Service and presented in a
status report published in 1990.

A survey, funded by the Service in 1989 and published in the summer of
1991, provided status information on the Arkansas River shiner
throughout its historic range. In November 1991, the shiner was
reclassified as a category 1 candidate. Category 1, at that time,
comprised those taxa for which the Service had substantial information
on biological vulnerability and threat to support proposals to list the
taxa as endangered or threatened. On February 28, 1996 (61 FR 7596), the
Service published regulations in the *Federal Register* discontinuing
candidate category 2 status and recognizing only category 1 species as
candidates for listing purposes.

A proposed rule to list the shiner as endangered was published on August
3, 1994. Three public hearings were held in January 1995. Processing of
the proposed rule was subsequently delayed by a congressional moratorium
on activities associated with final listings from April 1995 to April
1996. At that time, the Service was prohibited from making final
determinations on listing proposals.

On December 5, 1997, the Service reopened the comment period on the
proposed rule to ensure that all relevant data were provided to the
Service, and to allow the public to review and comment on information
the Service had obtained since August 1994. New information received
during the comment periods suggested that some threats to this species
were less severe than initially presented in the proposed rule. Based on
this new information, the Service determined that listing as threatened
was more appropriate. The final rule listing the Arkansas River basin
population of the ARS as a threatened species was published on November
23, 1998. Critical habitat was determined to not provide any benefit to
the shiner beyond listing the species as threatened, therefore was not
included in the final rule.

On February 16, 2000, responding to a lawsuit, [Center for Biological
Diversity v. Bruce Babbitt, et al.]{.underline} C99-3202 SC, the Service
negotiated a settlement order in which we agreed to reconsider the
question of whether critical habitat would be prudent; and, if
designation of critical habitat is prudent, we agreed to subsequently
propose designation of critical habitat for the Arkansas River Basin
population of the Arkansas River shiner by June 23, 2000.

Prior to this agreement a series of court decisions had overturned
Service not prudent determinations regarding for a variety of species
that designation (for example, [Natural Resources Defense Council v.
U.S. Department of the Interior]{.underline} 113 F. 3d 1121 (9^th^ Cir.
1997); [Conservation Council for Hawaii v. Babbitt]{.underline}, 2 F.
Supp. 2d 1280 (D. Hawaii 1998)). Based on the standards applied in those
judicial opinions, the Service reexamined the question of whether
designation of critical habitat for the Arkansas River Basin population
of the Arkansas River shiner was prudent. Subsequently, in June of 2000,
the Service published the proposed rule to designate critical habitat
for the Arkansas River shiner. Following public comment and further
analysis, critical habitat was designated April 4, 2001.

On April 25, 2002, the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association and 16
other plaintiffs filed complaint in the United States District Court of
New Mexico alleging violation of the Administrative Procedures Act, the
Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Per
court decision, critical habitat was vacated in September of 2003 and
the Service was ordered to complete a proposed rulemaking to redesignate
critical habitat by September of 2004. A final rule would be due by
September 2005.

The Service has prepared a draft Environmental Assessment and draft
Economic Analysis on this proposal. The public will be notified and the
documents will be available on the Service's website at
<http://ifw2es.fws.gov/Oklahoma/shiner.htm>.

Additionally, the Service scheduled three public information sessions
from 4 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. followed by public hearings from 7:00 to 9:00
p.m. locations are as follows:

**August 15^th^ -** Oklahoma City Zoological Park, Conservation
Education Center Auditorium, 2101NE 50^th^ Street, Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma 73111

**August 17^th^ -** Texas A&M Experiment Station Auditorium, 6500
Amarillo Boulevard West, Amarillo, Texas 79106

**August 18^th^ -** Seward County Activity Center, 810 Stadium Road,
Liberal, Kansas 67901

The dates, times and places of these hearings will be announced in the
Federal Register and local newspapers prior to the first hearing.

**[Protection under the ESA]{.underline}**

'Take' of listed species, which includes harassing, harming, pursuing,
wounding, killing, trapping, capturing, or collecting, is prohibited
under the ESA. If non-Federal actions may take a federally listed
species, the project proponent must prepare a Habitat Conservation Plan
and receive an incidental take permit from the Service.

The Act also requires that when a Federal action (fund, authorize, or
carry out) may affect a listed species, the responsible agency must
enter into consultation with the Service. Federal agencies also should
ensure that their actions do not destroy or adversely modify designated
critical habitat to the extent that the action appreciably diminishes
that value of the critical habitat essential for the survival and
recovery of the species. Thus, activities on Federal lands or Federal
actions that may affect the Arkansas River shiner or its critical
habitat will require consultation with the Service. Individuals,
organizations, States, local and tribal governments, and other
non-Federal entities are affected by the designation of critical habitat
only if their actions occur on Federal lands, require a Federal permit,
license, or other authorization, or involve Federal funding.

**[Conservation and Recovery]{.underline}**

The Act requires the Service to develop and implement recovery plans for
listed species. A recovery plan identifies reasonable actions needed to
conserve and recover listed species.

The Service will solicit active participation by the scientific
community, local, State, and Federal agencies, Tribal governments, and
other interested parties in the development and implementation of the
Arkansas River shiner recovery plan. Recovery of the shiner likely will
include measures to eliminate or reduce existing threats, protect
existing populations and those areas containing suitable habitat,
restore lost or degraded habitats, and preserve genetic diversity of the
species.

Regional, voluntary water conservation measures (including management of
invasive aquatic plant species), for both municipal/industrial and
agricultural uses, are the most viable means of prolonging stream flows
and protecting shiner habitat within the western sections of the
Arkansas River basin. Cooperative partnerships among the Service, other
Federal and State agencies and local governments (e.g., municipalities
and groundwater conservation districts), organizations, and landowners
are crucial to the success of region-wide water conservation efforts.
Community support and the participation of private landowners are
essential if the Service is to fully conserve and recover the shiner.
The Service has pledged to work closely with stakeholders in the
management and recovery of the shiner to ensure that the concerns of
local governments, citizens, and others are fully considered.