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July 26, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Kassie Siegel, CBD: (909) 659-6053, ext. 302
Karen Kraus, EDC (Santa Barbara): (805) 963-1622, ext. 105
CALIFORNIA TIGER SALAMANDER PROTECTED IN CENTRAL
CALIFORNIA UNDER FEDERAL ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT; SANTA BARBARA
AND SONOMA POPULATIONS DOWNLISTED TO "THREATENED"
Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released the final decision
listing the California tiger salamander in Central California
as "threatened" under the federal Endangered Species
Act. The protection comes after nearly fourteen years of petitions
from scientists and conservation organizations as well as litigation,
and enjoys the unanimous support of every single independent scientific
expert and wildlife biologist that commented on the proposal.
The listing extends the protections of the Endangered Species
Act to the salamander in its range in Central California, which
includes portions of over 20 counties.
"We are pleased that the California tiger salamander has
at long last been officially protected in Central California,"
said Kassie Siegel, a staff attorney with the Center for Biological
Diversity. "Now it is time to move forward with efforts to
protect the salamander and its habitat for future generations."
The listing determination comes in response to a lawsuit filed
by the Center for Biological Diversity ("Center") in
2002. Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement in that case,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was required to issue a proposed
rule to list the Central California salamander by May 15, 2003,
and a final listing determination by May 15, 2004. On May 13,
2004, the Bush Administration requested a six-month extension,
until November 23, 2004, to issue a final listing determination,
claiming that uncertainties had been raised by newly released
California Department of Conservation Farmland Mapping and Monitoring
data. The Center opposed the extension in Court because there
is in fact no legitimate scientific
controversy surrounding the need to protect this species. The
U.S. District Court ultimately ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service to quickly consider the "disputed" data and
to issue a final listing determination no later than July 23,
2004. The final rule confirms that the newly released data in
fact supports the need to protect the salamander under the Endangered
Species Act.
The California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) is
an important part of California's precious natural heritage. This
amphibian was historically distributed throughout most of the
Central Valley, adjacent foothills, Coast Ranges, Santa Barbara
County, and the Santa Rosa Plain in Sonoma County. This California
tiger salamander requires seasonal ponds, or vernal pools, for
successful breeding. The species breeds during the winter rainy
season, but spends the majority of the year in underground refuges,
primarily small mammal burrows, in grassland or oak woodland habitat.
The habitat types the California tiger salamander requires, vernal
pools, grasslands, and oak woodlands, are some of the most endangered
habitat types in California. Studies have estimated that less
than one tenth of one percent of California's native grasslands
remain, and approximately 95% of California's vernal pool landscape
has already been lost.
Today's listing decision also includes a Bush Administration
initiative to change the status of California tiger salamander
populations in Santa Barbara and Sonoma counties from endangered
to threatened and to eliminate the current classification of the
species as three "Distinct Population Segments." In
addition, the decision allows certain ranching activities to continue
that would otherwise be prohibited, based on the Fish and Wildlife
Service's conclusion that continued ranching in California will
help to preserve open space needed by the salamander to survive
in the long term. Both the Santa Barbara and Sonoma salamander
populations were "emergency" listed as recently as January,
2000 and July, 2002, respectively.
"Changing the status of the Santa Barbara and Sonoma salamanders
from endangered to threatened directly conflicts with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service's rationale for the emergency listings
of the Sonoma and Santa Barbara salamanders," said Karen
Kraus, a staff attorney with the Environmental Defense Center
in Santa Barbara. "The decision to change the status from
endangered to threatened has no basis in science."
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Photos, a range map, and further information regarding the California
tiger salamander are available online at http://www.biologicaldiversity.org
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