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Economic Impacts of the Critical Habitat Designation A Critical habitat designation requires the Service to prepare an analysis that considers the economic and other impacts of the proposed designation. A summary of the analysis is included in the rule published in the Federal Re2ister. Certain areas may be excluded from the critical habitat designation if the economic benefits of exclusion outweigh the benefits of conserving the areas. However, such areas cannot be excluded if their exclusion would result in extinction of the species. Examples of Critical Habitat Designation The Fish and Wildlife Service has determined critical habitat for 109 of the more than 600 U.S. endangered and threatened species. About 85 percent of the species with designated critical habitat are animals. Some examples are: Animals Eastern timber (gray) wolf - Almost 10,000 square miles (6.4 million acres) have been designated in northern Minnesota and on Isle Royale, Michigan. California condor - Several remote areas of mountain wilderness north of Los Angeles have been designated for this species. Whooping crane - Ten areas from the Texas coast through the Central Flyway to Nebraska have been designated. Hawksbi11 and leatherback sea turtles - Several beaches in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have been designated. Fishes . Some three dozen fishes, with habitats ranging from small desert springs to large midwestern rivers, have been designated critical habitat: desert pupfish in souther California and southwest Arizona; Modoc sucker in northeast California; Cape Fear shiner in North Carolina; slender chub and yellowfin madtom in portions of the Powell River in Tennessee and Kentucky; and Niangua darter in central Missouri. Plants Welch's milkweed - A single sand dune ecosystem in extreme southern Utah has been designated. Contra Costa wallflower and Antioch Dunes evening-primrose - A small dune system remnant at the mouth of the San Joaquin Valley in California has been designated. Ecosvstem San Marcos (Texas) Ecosystem - A large spring at San Marcos, which Qarbors a threatened salamander, the endangered San Marcos gambusia (a fish), and Texas wild-rice, has been designated. In Summary A designation of critical habitat does not create a wildlife refuge or wilderness area, nor does it close the area to human activity. It applies only to Federal agencies which propose to fund, authorize, or carry out activities that may adversely modify areas within designated critical habitat. Although critical habitat may be designated on private or State lands, activities of these lands are not restricted by the Act unless a Federal permit or other Federal involvement is required, or the activity would cause" direct harm to listed wi1dlife.