Sierra Club
Redwood Chapter Newsletter
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California Tiger Salamander: Critical Habitat versus the Strategy Plan Suzanne Doyle | |
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There were two public hearings on the California Tiger Salamander (CTS) during September. The purpose of the first hearing, held by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (F&WS), was to collect public comment about the critical habitat designation that F&WS is required to make by December 1. The second hearing, held September 12, was a public information and comment meeting on the Santa Rosa Plain Conservation Strategy Plan draft. F&WS has proposed 74,000 acres of critical habitat, including most of the Santa Rosa plain. Critical habitat increases protection for the salamander because it adds a prohibition against adversely affecting the species' habitat to the prohibition of 'take' (harm) given by the endangered listing. Usually, F&WS response to critical habitat comments is to whittle down the proposed number of acres. In this case they are also considering the possibility of designating zero habitat - if F&WS feels that the Strategy Plan is well-supported by local agencies and will lead to conservation of the endangered species. However, both of these are far from certain. |
The draft Strategy Plan is still deficient in several ways. The acreage of the proposed Conservation Areas has been trimmed down until it is possible that some of the Areas will be too small to support the species. The Plan still allows fragmentation of habitat to occur, preserve management and funding are not clearly described, and the management team may be controlled by local agencies rather than by trained conservationists. The strongest short-term protection for the CTS will be given by a non-zero designation of critical habitat while work continues on improving the Strategy Plan. If zero critical habitat is designated, but the Strategy Plan process falls apart or doesn't work, the tiger salamander will be back to square one. |