The 'logic' of endangered feces act

San Antonio Express-News:

It's the eight-legged discovery of the millennium! An endangered species of spider not seen in more than three decades unexpectedly appeared in Northwest San Antonio two weeks ago. Biologists and science buffs, rejoice.

There's just one downside if you're an area commuter: The spider, no bigger than a dime, showed up in the middle of a $15.1 million highway underpass project on Texas 151 at Loop 1604.

And in this particular case of nature vs. man-made road, the arachnid wins.

The highway project is on hold indefinitely.

A biologist discovered the eyeless spider, called the Braken Bat Cave meshweaver, after rain exposed a 6-feet-deep natural hole in the highway's median.

She's with the firm Zara Environmental, a consultant for the Texas Department of Transportation on the project.

Construction, under way since April, was halted late last week after a taxonomist confirmed the creature indeed was the endangered meshweaver, named for the type of web it spins. It was added to the federal endangered species list in 2000, along with eight other “karst invertebrates” found only in Bexar County.

Biologists have been working alongside construction crews from the start because this area is known for its abundance of natural resources, including songbirds and rare cave animals, like the spiders, said Stirling J. Robertson, biology team leader for TxDOT's environmental affairs division.

To find a Braken Bat Cave meshweaver was a discovery of another kind altogether, akin to “stumbling on a new Galapagos Island in terms of the biological significance of the region,” said biologist Jean Krejca, Zara's president.

After the spider was collected in a bottle, it was dissected for it to be identified, Krejca said. Collecting and killing an endangered species is allowed for that purpose if done by someone with a federal permit. No other spiders have been spotted in the hole where the one was found.
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If this sounds logical to you, you have some strange priorities.  No wonder it cost so much more to get anything done.  Stopping a highway project for a spider and then killing it to prove it is rare is not how e built this country.