Nearly 11,000 square miles of northern Maine are being targeted in a proposed rule as critical habitat for the Canada lynx, an animal protected under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Wednesday.

If the rule is adopted about a year from now, the designation could affect future development in northern Maine such as Plum Creek’s proposed conservation and development plan, if the development involves wetlands that require a federal permit, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife official.

“It would [affect development] and it wouldn’t,” Mark McCollough, an endangered species biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Old Town, said Wednesday. If the project jeopardizes the continued existence of the species or adversely modifies the critical habitat, then the rule would affect a project. The flip side is that a critical habitat designation does not really provide a whole lot of additional protection for the lynx since federal and state officials already consider these issues in their project reviews, he said.

A public hearing on the proposed rule will be held at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14, at the Black Bear Inn and Conference Center in Orono. An informational session will precede the meeting at 7 p.m.

The two key triggers that could affect development in the targeted northern Maine acreage are projects that require federal funds or federal permits.

“If we have that federal nexus, we really, at that point, will look at the entire project,” McCollough said. Were a developer to propose constructing a road or a structure that would require an Army Corp of Engineers wetland permit because of its effect on wetlands, then that would be the cause for a federal review, he said.

A Plum Creek official said Wednesday that he believes some of the acreage encompasses Plum Creek Timber Co. land. Despite that, Luke Muzzy, Plum Creek’s senior land asset manager, doubted that the proposed rule will affect the company’s 426,000-acre conservation and development plan. “We’re only proposing to rezone less than 2 percent of our land in that area for development,” he said. “And we’ve designed the plan originally taking into consideration all critical habitat. If there is some lynx habitat on our property, we’ll be sure that our development does not interfere with it.”

The proposed rule would have no effect on timber harvesting since the large landowners in the region rarely, if ever, have used federal funds nor have they conducted any projects that have required federal permits, McCollough said. “Up to this point, we have not reviewed any of their activities and don’t anticipate we would in the future,” he said.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife accepts federal funds for its programs, but McCollough said the federal government already reviews the state’s annual hunting program as part of its federal aid package. “At this point in time, we really don’t see that there’s any effect to Canada lynx,” he said.

Now in the public comment stage until Feb. 7, the proposed rule was the result of a lawsuit filed by the Defenders of Wildlife of Washington, D.C., a group instrumental in getting the lynx listed as an endangered species.

Attorney Mike Senatore, who represents the nonprofit environmental group, said Wednesday that the proposed rule has value since it would provide both federal and state agencies with information on those areas that are essential to the recovery of the species.

“Ideally, it should help focus conservation actions and other measures in those areas,” Senatore said.

In addition to the land in Aroostook, Franklin, Penobscot, Piscataquis and Somerset counties in Maine, the proposed rule designates land in northeastern Minnesota, the northern Rocky Mountains and the Okanogan area of the northern Cascades in north-central Washington as critical habitat for the lynx.

“We are committed by the court to have a proposal [for critical habitat] completed by November 1, 2005, and a final rule by November 1, 2006,” McCollough said.

A copy of the proposed rule and other information about the Canada lynx is available on the Internet at http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/species/mammals/lynx.

Anyone wishing to provide written comments may forward them to Montana Field Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 100 N. Park Ave., Suite 32, Helena, Mont. 59601 or by e-mail to FW6lynx@fws.gov.