Santa Barbara County Distinct Population Segment
of the California Tiger Salamander Recovery Plan
May General Meeting 2015, Lisa Bodrogi, Land Use Task Force Director for Santa Maria Chapter
lisa@cuvee.me Cell: 805-260-2461 Office: 805-937-8474
Staff from the Ventura office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held a
workshop on May 22nd at the Betteravia Government Center in Santa Maria
to explain the Draft Recovery Plan for the Santa Barbara County Distinct
Population Segment of the California Tiger Salamander. The Recovery Plan is
out for public comment through June 23, 2015. Written comments can be emailed to: sbcts_rp@FWS.gov or submitted to Ventura Fish and Wildlife
Office, Listing & Recovery Division, 2493 Portola Rd. Ste B, Ventura, CA,
93003. To review a copy of the Draft Plan go to:
www.fws.gov/endangered/species/recovery-plans.html
The Recovery Plan seeks to identify 4 functional breeding ponds within each of the mega-population
areas (shown below). Surrounding each pond 623 acres of functional upland habitat must remain in
fully preserved status, while an additional 1,628 contiguous acres shall be in fragmented status where
up to 50% shall remain preserved. In order to reduce the listing to a “threatened species”, 4 of the 6
mega-populations need to have these lands designated, with all 6 meta-populations with designated
land to remove the Santa Barbara Distinct Population for the Endangered Species list altogether. Doing
the math, that equals 54,024 acres of land in Northern Santa Barbara County encumbered by CA Tiger
Salamander restrictions. In order to accomplish this goal, Fish & Wildlife project a cost of $46 million
which has not been identified yet, but is suspected to come from non-profits and conservation
programs.
The Santa Barbara Tiger Salamander
was emergency listed as an
Endangered Species in 2000, “due to
habitat degradation as land was
converted for large-scale, intensive
agricultural use and urban
development”1. It has been
determined that the salamanders in
Santa Barbara County are “the most
genetically distinct from other
populations of the species, having
been separated from them for at least
740,000 years”2. Only the population
1
Quotation marks have been added for phrases taken directly from the US F&W Service Q &A Sheet handed out at
the Workshop
2
How can it be determined that the genetic distinction dates back 740,000 years?
segments of the CA Tiger Salamander found in Santa Barbara County (and Sonoma County) have the
genetic distinction. The only way the genetic distinction can be detected is by cutting off the tip of their
tail, which readily grows back.
Fifteen years later, some of the same questions that we asked back then, remain unanswered today.
Such as: 1) How many Tiger Salamanders are there?; 2) What are the economic impacts to the
production of food, fiber, fuel, recreation, as we pursue recovery of this genetically distinct population
of CA Tiger Salamander found only in Northern Santa Barbara County?; 3) What data correlates the
identified threats to the actual mortality rates as a result?; 4) What impact does the hybridized SB
County CTS have on the genetically correct “endangered” types?; 5) What are the consequences to life
as we know it if the Santa Barbara County Tiger Salamander did go extinct?
What was answered is they spend 95% of their time underground living in gopher or ground squirrel
burrows – the other 5% of the time they leave their burrows to return to their original breeding pond.
Because they are amphibian with night vision eyesight, they come out in the middle of the night in the
pouring rain. They need a good rain. In case you have forgotten what that is, it is a consistent rain over
consecutive hours that fill up our rivers and streams. While many folks haven’t seen one due to their
cryptic existence, one of the F&W staff characterized how “cool” it is that we have these critters here.
The good news is that the staff took the time to meet with stakeholders after spending multiple years
behind closed doors addressing environmental litigation. One can suspect that this is a result of coming
to the realization that since they report the genetically distinct Santa Barbara County salamander is only
found on privately owned land (apparently CA Tiger Salamander on the federal lands of the Vandenberg
AFB are from Texas…), they must have come to the conclusion that they need the private landowners to
be involved in the recovery if they are ever going to get anywhere.
The problem is not the salamander, per se, but the political motivation behind the listing of Santa
Barbara County Distinct Population Segment of the California Tiger Salamander. But how did we get to
the place where these cool little critters have become a political maneuver to stop or suspend all
reasonable use of one’s private property? As the threats to the salamander were described by F&W
staff, I reminded them that the threats to our local economy and livelihoods are equally as real.
I must say, having finally met one face-to-face, as thankfully one of the
biologists brought her pet Santa Barbara County genetically unique CA
Tiger Salamander to the workshop, that they are rather cute. It is hard
to argue that there are no redeeming qualities of this little critter, if
only we could get some more rain so we could get biologists out in the
middle of the night in the pouring rain to count them. Until then, we
can only get a glimpse of the Fish & Wildlife staff pets. I remember
having pet salamanders when I was a kid and they are… “really cool”.