Naked City

At long last, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has finalized an ambitious blueprint for managing the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge over the next 15 years. But there's a hook: The goals outlined in the Comprehensive Conservation Plan are "substantially above current budget levels." As a result, the federal report states, the guideline will be used for Fish & Wildlife's "strategic planning and program prioritization purposes only."

Beyond that deflating news, the document lays out eight specific goals for protecting the endangered golden-cheeked warbler, the black-capped vireo, and a hodgepodge of karst habitat, including the much-contested cave bug and salamander. ("Karst" is the name of the cave-heavy limestone geology west of Austin.) The conservation plan calls for such efforts as restoring 500 acres of vireo habitat within 10 years, creating a program to map and monitor caves and other karst features, and increasing the visitor tally to 5,000 per year.

The idea of creating the 18,000-acre spread northwest of Austin took hold in the early Nineties, with local officials establishing what was then the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan in 1992. The process of pulling the plan together involved conservation advocates, developers, and private landowners -- but the combination hardly made for a peaceable kingdom. Eventually the ruckus died down and the news drifted off the front page. Today, the wildlife refuge, for which the city and county are still acquiring land, is one of 19 such designated areas in Texas.

Interested parties can get copies of the new conservation plan by contacting Fish & Wildlife's Albuquerque office, 505/248-7458.