California Tiger Salamander Declared Endangered State-Wide

In what environmentalists may consider a victory in the fight to
ensure certain species remain on the planet, a Dec. 14 ruling
by California Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly overturned the
California Fish and Game
Commission’s (CFGC) rejection of a petition from the Center for Biological
Diversity to classify the
California tiger salamander as “endangered.” The ruling
responded to a CFGC vote which would have kept the species from the
list.

The California tiger salamander lives in vernal pools and other
wetlands throughout the state. The populations in Santa Barbara and
Sonoma counties were listed as being endangered by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service. However, these classifications are structured
in a way that such species can be labeled as endangered by both
federal and state agencies. In other words, two separate lists are
compiled by conservationists. Though endangered species often
appear on both, the salamander was not regarded as endangered or
threatened by California state law until this ruling. Thus, the
salamander now appears on both lists.

“The thorough and well-reasoned opinion overturned the
commission’s decision because the commission ignored or
misrepresented the overwhelming scientific evidence showing that
the salamander is highly imperiled,” read a press release from
Kathy Trisolini of Chatten-Brown and Carstens, the firm that
represented the Center for Biological Diversity.