The Fish and Wildlife Service could kick up some dust with a proposal to designate 930 acres of Nevada desert as critical habitat for the endangered Dixie Valley toad.
With its formal publication in the Federal Register this week, the habitat proposal and its potential implications for a major geothermal venture are now open for a 60-day public comment period.
“It adds a new layer of protection,” Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, said Friday, noting the “significantly small size” of the area now inhabited by the toad.
Advertisement
Donnelly added that this additional protection may be modest but “it certainly holds things to a higher standard.”
