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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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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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Endangered species spotlight: polar bear

February 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

polar bear Endangered species spotlight: polar bearWho wants to live in a world without polar bears?! There is no other animal that conjures up such majestic and fearful images of the wild Arctic than Ursus maritimus.  Polar bears are the largest land-based predators on the planet.  They survive exclusively on ringed seals, which provide them with a very high calorie source of fat for surviving the extreme cold of the Arctic. They are actually thought to be as smart as apes and must employ this intelligence to hunt down tricky ringed seals.

Nicknames

I have a very close attachment to the fate of polar bears because of a nickname that I developed while in my first year in undergraduate school.  I was going home one weekend with some friends to a high school football game and it was quite frigid outside.  I believe the temperature was around 27 degrees.  I had the urge to stick my head out the window and feel the chilly air so I did.  One of my friends yelled at me to close the window and then said, “It’s freezing out there, close the window!  What the hell are you, some kind of polar bear?!” Because of this comment, my height and my fair skin and hair, the nickname stuck and I have been interested in polar bears ever since.

Where’s the ice?

Like many other species on the planet, the survival of polar bears is threatened by habitat loss.  However, the effects of global warming on the habitat of polar bears are greater in polar bear habitat because temperatures at the poles are rising faster than those on other parts of the globe.  This means that much of the sea ice that polar bears depend on for hunting and breeding is melting away, leaving them with smaller amounts of ice to inhabit.

Research by the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group show that 8 out of 12 polar bear populations studied in 2009 are declining compared to only 5 populations that were declining in 2005.  Even if we stopped pumping out all  the greenhouse gases we put into the Earth’s atmosphere tomorrow, the results of global warming would still carry on for several years into the future.  This means that we have to act soon to reverse the trend of warming in time to save enough sea ice for polar bears to survive. If we do not, I will have a meaningless nickname and this would be horrible.

Your call to action

There are many simple ways that we can all reduce the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere: carpooling, buying a fuel-efficient vehicle, composting our food waste rather than sending it to the landfill, conserving water in domestic use helps reduce energy use significantly and buying local and/or organic reduces the amount of fuel burnt for food transportation and pesticide use.  These are all simple things that we can do without putting a large dent in our wallet to help curb greenhouse gases.

Here is a great informational video on polar bears and the threats they face.

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Endangered species spotlight: Coho salmon

February 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

coho salmon2 Endangered species spotlight: Coho salmonCoho salmon is the first species featured in the endangered species spotlight.  This spotlight series will focus on the factors responsible for the decline of key species that have become endangered and simple ways that we can help the recovery of these species.  Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) existed historically in the entire west coast of the United States, Alaska, Japan, regions of eastern Russia and possibly as far inland in the U.S. as Idaho.  Current levels of the Coho salmon are only 6-15% percent of what they were in the 1940s, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Why are they endangered?

Some of the biggest obstacles for this species include dams, erosion and siltation in breeding areas of freshwater streams/rivers, lack of water due to the diversion of freshwater for irrigation and electricity generation purposes and a rapid decline in the quality and quantity of wetlands in areas where Coho salmon exist and breed.  This salmon species is particularly sensitive to stream quality issues in their fry stage.  Dissolved oxygen is very important for their survival and may be affected by human activities such as recreation, mining, logging, channelization of steams and other changes in the banks of streams. Human activities have had a pronounced effect on Coho salmon habitat in the state of California, where only about 9% of the original wetlands in the state still exist!

WE NEED OXYGEN!

Dams and erosion into streams/rivers cause increases in water temperatures, which lessen the amount of dissolved oxygen for salmon necessary for breathing.  Dams also pose a physical obstacle for Coho salmon that are trying to reach spawning destinations upstream in coastal rivers.  Irrigation systems take water from rivers such as the Russian River in Sonoma County, California, and divert it to agricultural use such as growing grapes for wine.  Many agricultural areas that are close to such rivers containing Coho salmon and other species contribute to pollution in the water from fertilizers (particularly nitrates and phosphates) and pesticides.  Storm water drains in urban areas that drain in to rivers where Coho salmon live and breed may also create pollution from runoff and products thrown into storm drains near residential areas. These fish must have good gravel beds to lay their eggs in or their offspring will not survive!

What YOU can do to help

There are many small things that we can all do to help the recovery of endangered Coho salmon and other endangered species.

-Do not throw trash or any liquids (other than water) onto the street or in storm drains.  These drains go directly into streams and rivers that effect fish and other river dwellers.

-Buy dry farmed wine and sustainably farmed produce. One of the biggest users of water in our country is agriculture.  Wine grapes and other crops that are dry farmed use no water and thus  do not take water away from local streams or rivers.

-Follow fishing regulations.  If you are fishing, do not take more fish than is allowed by the law.

-Do not buy farmed salmon.  In some areas, farmed salmon populations threaten wild populations of salmon.  The best way to find out is know your salmon source.

-Volunteer in environmental restoration activities.  There are many local and national organizations that restore habitat to help endangered species recover.  The Nature Conservancy does great work in restoration.  Google your local watershed and find out what group is actively restoring the watershed.

If we all take these small steps in caring for our natural world, species such as Coho salmon may soon be as plentiful as they were 70 years ago!!! Check out this great video on Coho salmon in West Marin!

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