by Chase Canevari
The Santa Rosa plain is in danger of losing multiple species, one of these being the California tiger Salamander. These beautiful amphibians are endemic to multiple locations in California and are all listed. However, when listed, they are divided into three categories, one being Sonoma County, which we will be looking at, and the other two are Santa Barbara and Central California. The California tiger Salamander from Sonoma County is black with random white or yellowish markings. It is a large salamander, about 16 to 24 cm long, with a broad, rounded snout (Draft Recovery Plan).
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The California tiger Salamander's habitat is that of the plain. The Santa Rosa plain this specific group of salamanders live in originally encompassed 100,000 acres of land. They survived in vernal pools (seasonal ponds) in the plain. However, now the plain is only 18,000 to 20,000 acres. It has been reduced 80 percent (Draft Recovery Plan). The entire habitat has been fragmented and experienced intense degradation.
http://interwork.sdsu.edu/fire/resources/images/493_Vernal_Pool_II_crop.jpg
The population of these salamanders is hard to gage, being that they are very reclusive critters. Number of active breeding adults changes often, however, the population seems to be pretty consistent through out the years. Salamanders use these pools as breeding grounds and usually live in burrows. They use the burrows of other small mammals to survive in. The salamanders are dependent on these small mammals for habitat. This burrow habitat is the reason they are so hard to keep count of. Three critical features for the salamander's habitat are aquatic habitat, non-breeding habitat, and connections between other salamander populations (Draft Recovery Plan).
http://www.fws.gov/sacramento/outreach/2014/12-11/maps/Fig_9-Distro_Sonoma_Tiger_Salamander.jpg
The California tiger Salamander was listed as endangered in 2003, and then in 2011 it was listed for critical habitat in the Santa Rosa Plains. The salamander is considered threatened state-wide. The main threats to the habitat of the salamander are structural changes in agriculture, urbanization, and non native plants (Draft Recovery Plan). These three factors have affected the plains in sheer size and also changed the seasonal ponds. The habitat has become so fragmented that it is hard for the salamanders to travel between ponds. Due to this, the salamander population has seen a large decrease in size.
http://www.animalspot.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/California-Tiger-Salamander-Images.jpg
When devising a plan for recovery, one must realize that the salamander is confined to a limited habitat. The recovery plan for the California tiger Salamander and Santa Rosa plain addresses this by preserving what is already there and adding protection from these threats. Such protections would be buffer zones between the habitat and the areas of concern. To correct this problem and get it right, there will be surveys to assess the habitat. One more way to ensure the protection of the salamander is to maintain genetic diversity of the Santa Rosa Plain. All in all, the cost of recovering the Santa Rosa Plain will be around $463 million dollars with an expected date of recovery of 2065 (Draft Recovery Plan).
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/csp/mediapool/sites/dt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls?STREAMOID=Iu4Y15wTMd3_Mz9Ip3skqc$daE2N3K4ZzOUsqbU5sYsn70f9cC27H0hVddFXb9SEWCsjLu883Ygn4B49Lvm9bPe2QeMKQdVeZmXF$9l$4uCZ8QDXhaHEp3rvzXRJFdy0KqPHLoMevcTLo3h8xh70Y6N_U_CryOsw6FTOdKL_jpQ-&CONTENTTYPE=image/jpeg
More about the recovery plan and sources can be read online:
http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/Draft%20Recovery%20Plan%20for%20Santa%20Rosa%20Plain%20for%20publication%201-6-2015.pdfat
http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile?spcode=D01T
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