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Endangered species spotlight: California tiger salamander

March 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

cal tiger salamander Endangered species spotlight: California tiger salamanderThe California tiger salamander is a stocky, colorfully spotted salamander that enjoys vernal pools found in California’s grasslands and small streams for breeding.  They do not breed in years where there is not enough rainfall.  This salamander is listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  In Sonoma County, the expansion of housing and other development projects threatens 95% of the tiger salamander’s habitat. Most of their populations in the central valley have been eliminated by development and agriculture.

Burrowing amphibians

The health of tiger salamander populations is also threatened by the use of pesticides in and upstream of areas of their habitat.  Due to their sensitivity to chemicals such as pesticides, salamanders are good indicators of the overall ecological health of an area.  The absence of native tiger salamanders is a good indicator of poor ecological health.  Tiger salamanders rely on the burrows of ground squirrels, gophers and other burrowing critters for shelter.  They spend most of their lives underground. The elimination of these ground squirrels due to concerns about their effect on cattle grazing is a threat to native tiger salamander populations.

Don’t smash me!

The best time to spot a tiger salamander is during the rainy season (November to May) when they make their mass migrations to vernal pools for breeding.  Unfortunately, they often have to cross roads, which leaves them vulnerable to traffic when they are making their way to vernal pools at night.

Predation by non-native bullfrogs and hybridization are additional threats to California tiger salamanders.  According to one study, when non-native tiger salamanders breed with native tiger salamanders, the hybrid offspring survive in higher numbers than the native offspring.

That is my wetland, buddy!

In August of 2011, with the diligent legal efforts of the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated 47,383 acres as revised critical habitat for the California tiger salamander in Sonoma County.  This decision still left out important pieces of their habitat, but it was a big step in the right direction for the survival of the California tiger salamander.

How you can help

There are many things that we can do to help improve and preserve habitat for the California tiger salamander. We can use less water for showers, washing dishes and watering plants by always turning the faucet/hose off when we are not using it.  Less residential water use means more water for rivers and wetlands that provide habitat for native tiger salamanders.  One way to be sure where your food comes is to know your farmer.  Knowing your farmer also gives you information on whether the farmer uses chemicals on his/her crops.  Pesticides pollute streams and wetlands in which tiger salamanders live.  You can also help out this salamander by donating time and/or money to organizations like the Center for Biological Diversity that are working hard to secure habitat for endangered species such as the California tiger salamander.

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Endangered species spotlight: northern spotted owl

March 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
northern spotted owl1 Endangered species spotlight: northern spotted owl

courtesy of USGS

The northern spotted owl is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.  It inhabits the old growth forests of California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.  Studies estimate that there are fewer than 2,360 pairs of these owls left on earth.

 

 

 

 

Silent Raptors

These owls are adept predators and the have a distinct flight pattern that allows them to sneak up on their prey.  They also have special feathers that are serrated like a comb at the edge, which reduces turbulence thus reducing sound.  They have large wings that allow them to flap less making less noise in flight.  These features combine to make the owl a stealthy hunter.

Owls vs. jobs

The northern spotted owl is a symbol of the larger conflict that exists between balancing economic opportunities with the preservation of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. These owls like to make their homes in the cavities of large, broken or hollowed out trees that are more prevalent in old-growth forests.  Such forests provide cool and damp conditions preferred by the owls and are home to their favorite food source, small mammals.

These owls are an indicator species for old-growth forests.  This means that they give us a larger picture of the health of the ecosystem in which they live.  If the owls become extinct it is a good indicator that the health of their forest ecosystems are declining.

Good decisions

On March 7, 1991, U.S. District Court judge William Dwyer made a decision to block all logging in old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest.  This was a monumental victory for the habitat of the northern spotted owl, but a harsh blow for the timber industry in this part of the country.  The argument between environmentalists and the timber industry was often coined “owls vs. jobs.”  This is a familiar argument.  It represents the larger battle between balancing economic development with environmental conservation.

Do we really need more wood?

This conflict is often seen as a zero sum situation: if we preserve more forest, this automatically means fewer jobs for people in the timber industry.  However, there are many other options for jobs.  One possibility is to create organizations that offer jobs in conservation to those that lose their jobs in the timber industry.  These could be positions that help manage the forest sustainably rather than just cutting it all down.  Tourism is also another possibility.  There are many possibilities for tourist ventures such as eco-resorts, retreat centers and camps that would have much less impact on the forest ecosystems and provide good jobs for people who live in these areas.  It only requires some flexibility and ingenuity on our behalf.  Change in our culture and our economy is inevitable.  We control the direction of change.

How we can all help

Our decisions impact not only our well-being as the dominant species on this planet, but also the well-being and survival of many other species like the spotted owl that have no voice other than a soft cry only heard in the canopies of the largest and oldest trees in the world.  There are ways that we can all help ensure the health of owl habitat.  One of the easiest things we can do is buy sustainably certified wood and/or use old/recycled lumber for building projects. We can also contribute to organizations such as the Nature Conservancy that are working to preserve habitat for northern spotted owls.

 

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Top ten ideas to reverse climate change

March 5, 2012 By 1 Comment
grab a paddle Top ten ideas to reverse climate change

Now that is a paddle!

After a bit of brainstorming,  I have come up with a short list of interesting ways that we can turn around the trend of climate change.

1. Drive golf carts: if everyone drove solar-powered golf carts, the demand for fossil fuels would decline rapidly.  Also, most golf carts have a maximum speed of about 20-25 mph.  It would be very difficult to be in a hurry if everyone were driving golf carts.  This would lead to a more leisurely and pleasant lifestyle as well as reduced carbon emissions. This may seem like an unrealistic goal, but several communities have already adopted this practice.

2. Walk barefoot: walking without shoes will make you reconsider how important and necessary concrete is.  I was in Hawaii years ago talking with a guy that was born there and somehow we got on the topic of concrete.  He said, “yeah that stuff is so hard, it will break your feet.” Then I started thinking about all the locals I had seen walking and hiking barefoot and it began to make sense.  Of course, one has to be careful about walking barefoot because there are so many sharp things that we might cut our feet on.  Less concrete means more soil, which can store more carbon.

3. Let your kids play in the dirt: nature deficit disorder is becoming a serious threat to the health of many children. One easy way to fix this problem is by encouraging your kids to play outside and get dirty.  You will find that most kids prefer playing outside to video games and tv once they get used to it.  Also, playing outside requires no electricity.

4. Build something out of old materials: this is a green and creative challenge.  One of my favorite things to build out of old materials are treehouses.  Instead of buying new lumber to build a treehouse, scour the neighborhood for old boards and other building materials to make a tree hideaway.

6.  Go hunting: hunting may seem primitive and barbaric to some people, but for those that eat meat, killing one’s own food can be a very connecting experience.  Factory-farmed meats uses lots of energy, water and chemicals to produce the delicacies that we buy in the grocery store.  When you have to hunt, kill and clean your own food you become more aware of what is involved in eating meat and use fewer resources doing so.

7. Pee outside: peeing outside saves water and energy and it is fun if no one is watching.  According to the American Water Works Research Foundation, flushing the toilet accounts for 26.7% of total daily residential water use.  It is most likely the single largest use of water in your home.  This means that if everyone pees outside half of the time, we could save about 2.4 billion gallons of water every day in the United States!!!  Imagine how many wetlands could be restored with this saved water.  Wetlands store more carbon than any other form of vegetation and thus greatly help reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. They also provide habitat for thousands of different plant and animal species!

8. Buy local food: local food uses less energy for transportation and growing than food shipped over long distances.  Some studies estimate that the current industrial food production system uses 7-10 calories of energy to produce just one calorie of food.  We can use of energy much more efficiently by buying local food, which requires less fossil fuels to transport the food.

9. Plant a native tree: native trees are adapted to local climate conditions and water availability.  This means that they use less water, provide shade, hold soil in place to prevent erosion and capture carbon dioxide from the air, which decreases the amount of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.  Planting a tree is also a very real and rewarding experience that has benefits for years to come.

10. Grab a paddle: if you are thinking about an outing on the water, try a canoe instead of a powerboat.  There are many things you can do in a canoe (fishing, whitewater, lounging) and it is good exercise.  Canoes do not use any gas or oil so they do not contribute to greenhouse gases. You will be surprised at how much more you take in your surroundings while riding in a canoe compared to a faster, gas-powered boat.

I would love to hear about your ideas to reverse climate change. Please send them to me!

 

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Endangered species spotlight: California red-legged frog, el mariachi

March 2, 2012 By 1 Comment

California red legged frog Endangered species spotlight: California red legged frog, el mariachiThe California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) is currently listed as endangered.  It is found primarily in the state of California.  This was frog was made famous for its mention in Mark Twain’s short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

 

 

Froggy serenades

The male red-legged frogs arrive early at the breeding grounds in groups to serenade the females with their guttural grunts.  For this reason, the title of this blog post has the phrase “el mariachi” at the end. They are the mariachis of the amphibian world.

Red-legged frogs enjoy the shade.  They cannot tolerate excessive heat and they like to hang out in ponds and streams with slow-moving water.  The population of red-legged frogs has decreased significantly in recent decades and they are now reported in only 238 streams in California. The frog has disappeared from 70 percent of its original range.  Amphibians such as the red-legged frog are good indicators of ecosystem health.  The fact that this frog population is in decline reflects the declining health of many wetlands and streams which it inhabits.

Adiós wetlands

The main threats to red-legged frogs include habitat loss, predation by invasive American bullfrogs and dwindling water resources due to increased demand for water from human activities. California has lost an estimated 90 percent of its original wetlands.  Most of this loss is due to increased water use by irrigation and energy generation.

Your call to action

There are many simple ways we can all help save critical habitat for endangered species like the red-legged frog.  We can decrease our personal water consumption by turning the water off when we are not using it, taking shorter showers, watering plants with recycled water, use a water catchment system and we can buy food that is grown locally and organically to decrease water and energy used in transportation and growing of food.   Many organizations in California are working to help conserve habitat for the red-legged frog. They include the Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and many others like the Sonoma Land Trust and Pepperwood Preserve.

Watch this cool video of a red-legged frog gobbling up an earthworm with its quick tongue!

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Laissez les bon temps rouler

March 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

buffalo river 300x147 Laissez les bon temps roulerRites of passage are one of the most important occurrences in children’s lives.  Often the most meaningful rites are those that involve a deep connection with the natural world.  I had an arduous rite of passage one summer on the Buffalo River in northern Arkansas.

 

Silly plastic toys

I had just acquired my driver’s license a few months before and was eager to strike out into the wild.  My brother and I loaded up my GMC Jimmy with what I thought were adequate supplies and made our way to my friend Jeff’s house to pick him up for the journey. We stopped at a sports store and bought an inflatable kayak.  I had little experience with paddling and thus did not realize the uselessness of an inflatable kayak, but would soon find out the hard way.

Nutritious camp meals

We arrived at the Buffalo River campground late in the afternoon and made a fire for our hot dogs.  After a satisfying meal of hot dogs, marshmallows and Coca-Cola, we tried to set our sleeping quarters in the back of my SUV.  For some reason, I thought we could all fit comfortably in the back of it.  It never got below 85 degrees that night and we got very little sleep.

The next morning, we rented a funyak from a canoe rental shop and hopped in the car with an old Cajun man that shuttled us to the launch point up the river.  He told us dirty jokes that we mostly did not understand and when he left us at the boat launch the last thing he said was, “Laissez les bon temps rouler.”  I did not know what he meant, but no words could have been further from the reality of our river journey.

Delivered

We quickly realized that the inflatable kayak was not fit for the river.  You could not move it forward by paddling.  It had to just float with the current, which was non-existent at several places in the river.  After two or three arduous miles of dragging the kayak over rocks and unwrapping it from trees in the river, we stopped for lunch.  We had plenty of sandwiches and fruit bars until we flipped the kayak after lunch and the entire contents of our cooler went floating down the Buffalo River.  The sun was setting, we had ten more miles to go with a lot of still water and the only sustenance we had left was a single Nutrigrain bar between three people.

We tried to sleep on a sandbar in the river that night without any sleeping bags or tents.  I managed to curl up on the kayak while my brother and friend slept on a tarp spread out over the large rocks.  The one time I did manage to drift off a bit, I woke up to find a black widow spider on my leg.  Fortunately, it did not bite.  We were hours away from the nearest medical facility.

The home stretch

The next day was one of the most difficult of my life.  I had to drag the kayak with my large, lazy friend in it across ten miles of shallow rocky river on a completely empty stomach.  It took us all day and when we finally reached the launch point where my vehicle was parked, the only thing I could think about was FOOD!

As we made our way back south to my house, we heard on a local radio station that there was an escaped serial killer roaming the wilderness area very close to where we were camping.  Fortunately, we never saw him.  We had nothing to defend ourselves with on the river save the large rocks all around us.

Your call to action

This trip was rite of passage for us.  It taught us the value of preparation and knowing the river conditions that we would encounter.  I believe that every youth should have the opportunity for such experiences, but this is only possible if we preserve the places in nature like the Buffalo River.  In a time when state budgets are crunched and state parks are some of the first budget items cut, we need help preserving wild areas more than ever.  One of the greatest organizations I have ever worked with is the Nature Conservancy.  They preserve and manage wild areas all over the U.S. and many other countries.

The Buffalo River was the first national river in the United States and it is one of the few undammed rivers left in the lower 48.  It is a wonderful place to camp, hike, fish, swim and enjoy the beauty of the oldest mountains in the country.

 

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