The Fish and Wildlife Service is once more digging through rocky terrain as it examines how the threatened American burying beetle might coexist with a long-debated Nebraska transmission line project.
With two in-person public hearings this week, starting Tuesday night at the Prairie Arts Center in North Platte, Nebraska, the federal agency will be getting an earful over the proposed transmission line known as the R-Project.
The public hearings, and an accompanying public comment period that runs through April 9, will inform the FWS’s development of a revised habitat conservation plan for the transmission line project. This will entail, among other things, conditions that will allow the project to cause the “incidental take” — or accidental death or disturbance — of the beetle that’s otherwise protected by the Endangered Species Act.
public comment period
It’s a project that has excited strong opinions for years, and continues to do so.
