At a Fish and
Game Commission hearing today in Redding, CA,
the Center for Biological Diversity,
Environmental Protection Information Center
(EPIC), and Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center
(KS Wild) expressed their opposition to
removing state protection for the Siskiyou
Mountains Salamander and filed a petition to
protect the newly discovered Scott Bar
Salamander as a threatened species under
California’s Endangered Species Act (CESA).
The Scott Bar Salamander was described as a
separate species from the Siskiyou Mountains
Salamander in May of 2005. California
Department of Fish and Game has taken the
position that once the new species was
described, it lost the protected status
currently provided to the Siskiyou Mountains
Salamander.
“Because of
old-growth forest logging, the Siskiyou
Mountains and Scott Bar Salamanders need the
protection of California’s Endangered Species
Act” states Noah Greenwald, conservation
biologist with the Center for Biological
Diversity. “Department of Fish and Game’s
effort to remove protections for these
salamanders and allow logging of their habitat
is not supported by credible science and
should be rejected by the Fish and Game
Commission.”
Based on the
advice of Department of Fish and Game, the
Fish and Game Commission is currently
conducting a one-year review, including
today’s hearing, to determine if the Siskiyou
Mountains Salamander should be removed from
the state’s list of threatened species, which
would be the first time any species has lost
such protection. This move has been sharply
criticized by the primary experts on the
biology of these salamanders. Forest Service
scientist Dr. Hartwell Welsh, for example,
concluded that “interpretation of the science”
used by the state game agency to support
delisting was “seriously flawed” (letter
available upon request).
“We’re just
beginning to understand these unique
salamanders that breathe through their skin
and primarily live under the cover of
old-growth forests,” states Lindsey Holm,
Timber Harvest Monitor for EPIC. “Yet
Department of Fish and Game is rushing their
habitat to the chopping block.”
Upon learning
of the discovery of the Scott Bar Salamander,
the California Department of Fish and Game
informed industrial timber companies that
because the Scott Bar salamander is a new
species, protections previously afforded to
the rare salamanders would cease. The
California Department of Forestry (CDF)
subsequently approved amendments to at least
four timber harvest plans (THPs) allowing
logging of Scott Bar Salamander habitat.
Because these amendments were approved without
public notice or comment, the conservation
groups sued CDF, who immediately withdrew them
and initiated a process for public input.
“Rather than
heralding the discovery of a new species in
California, the California Department of
Forestry is rushing to wipe out the rare
critters’ habitat,” said Joseph Vaile,
campaign director of KS Wild. “Unique to
northern California, the Scott Bar Salamander
should be protected for the enjoyment and
study of future generations.”
In filing a
petition to protect the new species, the
groups are initiating a process that could
provide permanent protection to the Scott Bar
Salamander, which has one of the smallest
ranges of any terrestrial salamander in North
America. In June 2004, the groups also
petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
to list both the Siskiyou Mountains and Scott
Bar Salamanders under the federal Endangered
Species Act, and expect an initial decision on
this petition by the end of April.
“The Siskiyou
Mountains and Scott Bar Salamanders needs
immediate protection from logging under both
the state and federal Endangered Species
Acts,” states Greenwald. “Instead, the
California Departments of Forestry and Fish
and Game are doing everything in their power
to ensure timber companies are allowed to log
these unique species’ habitat.”
For additional
information on the biology and status of these
salamanders call herpetologist Richard Nauman
(541-231-7291), who was one of the authors of
the study describing the new species
