Dec 1, 2006 - Once a plan to mitigate loss of endangered woodpecker habitat can be funded and put into effect, allowing for development of currently restricted land totaling nearly half of Boiling Spring Lakes, the question remains as to who would enforce the guidelines.
With local Realtors searching for funds and national environmental groups providing assistance, such guidelines to compensate for loss of forestland seem likely to be drawn. That plan could warrant the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue an “incidental take” permit, which allows for the removal, or “take,” of longleaf pines used by the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
However, the holder of that permit has yet to be decided, meaning no one has assumed the legal responsibility or long-term commitment of managing the bird’s population within the city and coordinating mitigation between property owners and the federal agency.
“The key is who’s going to hold that incidental take permit,” said Steve Candler, government affairs director for the Brunswick County Association of Realtors, which this month received bids from independent contractors to draw up a habitat conservation plan (HCP), essentially a blueprint of future mitigation.  By jonathan Spiers