Landowners helping state revive endangered Gila topminnow

With BC-CNS-Gila Topminnow-Box

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By MIKE MARTINEZ
Cronkite News Service

PHOENIX (Tuesday, Sep. 16) _ If the endangered Gila topminnow is going to make a comeback in Arizona, its recovery may depend on places as seemingly unremarkable as TimBuckTwo Pond between Tucson and Nogales.

About 200 of the tiny fish were released recently on Frank Baucom and Kathy Groschupf’s property near Amado in the first use of a Safe Harbor Agreement to preserve the species in Arizona. Such agreements shield private landowners from land-use restrictions that come from having endangered or threatened species on their property.

For the Arizona Game and Fish Department, which is teaming with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Safe Harbor represents an opportunity to expand a reintroduction of the Gila topminnow beyond public land by encouraging private landowners to participate.

“The Safe Harbor Agreement allows them to have no surprises,” said Jeff Sorensen, native fish and invertebrate program manager with Game and Fish.

Under the 10-year agreement, if Baucom and Groschupf decide to change the way they use their land, such as adding cattle, Game and Fish will remove the fish.

“It’s important to keep parts of our ecosystem still functioning,” Baucom said. “Native fish all across Arizona have really taken a hit because of water diversions, habitat changes and alien fish that have come in, and they need another chance to be able to continue.”

The Gila topminnow was once common across southern and central Arizona below 5,200 feet, but habitat loss and competition from non-native species nearly wiped it out. Growing to about 2 inches long, the Gila topminnow is Arizona’s only native fish that gives birth to live young.

The fish released at TimBuckTwo Pond are part of a lineage of Gila topminnow that had survived only in captivity, Sorensen said. Game and Fish also hopes to use the agreement to release the endangered desert pupfish in Baucom and Groschupf’s pond.

Game and Fish plans to conduct more releases on private land under Safe Harbor Agreements, but it is still talking with landowners, Sorensen said.

“We’re starting to get more requests,” he said. “But we need people who have isolated ponds and closed basins. Rivers and streams are more difficult because once we stock we don’t want the fish leaking onto anyone else’s land.”

Meanwhile, the agency plans to release Gila topminnows in the next year at McDowell Mountain Regional Park near Scottsdale and at Robbins Butte near Buckeye.

In addition to releases such as the one at TimBuckTwo Pond, the Gila topminnow’s revival depends on Arizona State University’s Animal Resource Center, which breeds the fish in several large tanks.

Paul Marsh, an adjunct professor of biology who works in the center, said the species is important because it feeds on mosquitoes, a preference that can help curb the spread of West Nile Virus and other diseases.

“We’re protecting them here in case something nasty happens in the real world,” Marsh said.
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Web Link:
_ Arizona Game and Fish Department: www.azgfd.gov

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PHOTOS:

Click thumbnails to see full-resolution images and download; caption information is in the file under File>File Info.

CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-GILA TOPMINNOW: This Arizona Game and Fish Department photo shows TimBuckTwo Pond near the southern Arizona community of Amado. Under an agreement called Safe Harbor, state officials are working with landowners to return the tiny Gila topminnow to its native habitat. TimBuckTwo Pond is the first such site. (Photo Credit: George Andrekjo, Arizona Game and Fish Department)

CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-GILA TOPMINNOW: A Gila topminnow is shown in this undated photograph by the U.S. Forest Service. State officials have started returning the endangered fish to its native habitat in southern Arizona under a Safe Harbor Agreement, which enlists the help of private landowners. (Mandatory Credit: John Rinne, U.S. Forest Service)

CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-GILA TOPMINNOW: Paul Marsh, an associate professor of biology at Arizona State University, observes Gila topminnows in a tank at the school’s Animal Resource Center. ASU has the only controlled facility breeding the endangered Gila topminnow. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michael Martinez)

CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-GILA TOPMINNOW: These tanks at Arizona State University’s Animal Resource Center are used to breed the endangered Gila topminnow. State officials are working with landowners to return the tiny fish to its native habitat in southern Arizona. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michael Martinez)

CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-GILA TOPMINNOW: Gila topminnows are shown in a tank at Arizona State University’s Animal Resource Center. State officials are working with landowners to return the endangered fish to its native habitat in southern Arizona. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Michael Martinez)