All right, it is three o'clock.

We're gonna go ahead and call the SCPHCP coordinating committee meeting to order.

If we can go ahead and start off with a roll call vote, please.

Committee member Nino.

Committee member Garcia.

Committee member Jordan.

Here.

Committee member McGlamory.

I'm here.

Committee member Simper.

Here.

Chair Sparrow.

Here.

Aquor mis present.

Alright, we're going to move on to our public comments.

We have a number of folks.

It looks like everyone is signed up to speak on agenda item two.

Is that correct?

Correct.

All right.

So we have 11 folks signed up to speak, so we'll do the full three minutes per person if you can call those in order.

Catherine Fess, followed by Lisa Pack.

Yield your time.

Okay, thank you.

We have her on the list signed up.

You repeat your name?

Catherine Wessel.

All right, thank you.

Hello, hello.

Okay, good.

Members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Catherine Feist, and I am a member of the Scenic Loop Holotus Creek Alliance.

I want to address a pattern that we are seeing across the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, a pattern that is directly relevant to the goals of the SEP HCP.

It is the use of staged or incremental land clearing as a development tactic and its effect on the golden cheek warbler and other sensitive species.

We often talk about habitat loss as if it happens all at once.

A bulldozer arrives, a woodland disappears, and the impact is clear.

But in reality, the most consequential damage is often happens before the first permit is issued and long before a project is ready to build.

Developers sometimes clear land in phases not to begin construction, but to fragment the habitat in a way that reduces the likelihood that endangered species will be detected later.

This is not speculation, the science is unambiguous.

Golden cheek warblers depend on continuous mature ash juniper oak woodlands.

When that canopy is broken into pieces, even if some trees remain, the habitat becomes less suitable.

Fragmentation increases edge effects, reduces nesting success, and pushes birds out of areas they previously occupied.

In other words, you don't have to eliminate the habitat to eliminate the species.

You only have to break it apart.

And that is exactly what staged clearing accomplishes.

By clearing one section of a property this year, another section the next, and another the year after, a developer can steadily degrade the ecological value of the entire tract.

By the time a biological surveys survey is conducted, the warblers are gone, not because the habitat was never there, but because it was chipped away in increments too small to trigger a regulatory review.

This practice has real consequences for our region.

It undermines the intent of the Endangered Species Act, it undermines the integrity of the SEPHCP, and it undermines public trust in the development process.

Most importantly, it undermines the long-term health of the Edwards Aquifer.

Because the same mature woodlands that support the warbler also stabilize soils, slow runoff, and protect water quality.

Fragmentation is not just a wildlife issue, it is a water protection issue.

I want to be clear, this is not about stopping development.

It is about stopping the quiet erosion of the safeguards that allow development and conservation to coexist.

When clearing is used strategically to avoid environmental responsibility, the public loses twice.

We lose habitat and we lose the transparency needed to make informed decisions.

I urge the committee to recognize stage clearing and fragmentation for what they are.

A loophole that weakens the very protections this plan was designed to uphold.

And I ask you to consider policy tools, whether through timing restrictions, pre-clearing surveys, or coordination with local governments that ensure habitat is evaluated before it is degraded, not after.

Thank you for the time and for your stewardship of the Edwards Aquifer and the species that depend on it.