U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials on Tuesday announced final approval of a plan for an endangered beetle that will allow construction of a new Scotts Valley Middle School to begin in earnest.
The timing couldn’t have been better.
The Press Banner received an email late Tuesday afternoon from a Fish and Wildlife spokesman announcing the May 2 decision, and the district received confirmation on Wednesday, hours before a community forum was to be held on the long-awaited project, and one week before groundbreaking ceremonies next Tuesday.
“This is great news,” said Scotts Valley Superintendent Tanya Krause Wednesday afternoon.
She said a followup announcement Wednesday that the federal decision will be posted on the Federal Register on Monday, May 8, means that the district could receive its state construction permit around June 12, right after school is out.
“The Board of Trustees and the district are so appreciative of the community support in helping advocate on the district’s behalf to get this process moving along, and especially to Congresswoman [Anna] Eshoo’s office for her intervention on our behalf,” Krause told the Press Banner Wednesday afternoon.
The state permit must wait until the end of a 30-day comment period on the district’s plan to mitigate the $33 million construction project’s impact on a little striped scarab, the Mount Hermon June Beetle, whose only habitat in the world is in the sandy soil around Scotts Valley and the Zayante sand hills.
Those plans were approved by Fish and Wildlife in December and were ready to be posted in January, when the final posting was blocked by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that halted all activities surrounding the Endangered Species Act.
What the Department of Interior called this week “a revised national clearance process” created an indefinite delay in the district’s middle school project, whose schedule was built around creating as little disruption as possible to the academic calendar.
Eshoo’s office in March applied pressure in Washington, which resulted in some assurances from Fish and Wildlife that the district’s approval process would resume, but no dates were given.
That forced the district, which began some site work and temporary classroom relocations last fall, to change its plans to build the new gymnasium this summer.
The Fish and Wildlife email to the Press Banner Tuesday followed email inquiries from the newspaper to the agency, asking for some specifics for Scotts Valley families, whom Krause said earlier this week had been displaying “remarkable patience” with this latest three-month delay.
The agency at first said the decision would be posted “within the next two weeks, then Wednesday announced it would be in a few days, posting May 8.
“We understand the importance of this project to the school and local community,” wrote Ashley Spratt in the Tuesday email.
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worked with Scotts Valley Middle School to prepare a draft Habitat Conservation Plan which outlines strategies to avoid, minimize, and mitigate for impacts of a construction and renovation project on the federally endangered Mount Hermon June Beetle.”
What the agency failed to acknowledge was that plan was approved and ready go to in January, before Trump’s executive order halted the district in its tracks.
