Appeals Court Reaffirms that State Fish and Game Commission Improperly Rejected
Petition to List Salamander

SACRAMENTO—The California state appeals court ruled that the California Fish and Game
Commission must consider a petition to list the California Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma
californiense) as an endangered species under the California Endangered Species Act. In a
decision with potential implications for other poorly monitored species, the court ruled
that the Fish and Game Commission must consider a listing petition if the information
would “lead a reasonable person to conclude there is a substantial possibility” that the
species could be listed.

“The Fish and Game Commission ignored the multitude of known threats to the Tiger
Salamander and dismissed the petition, falsely claiming it did not contain all of the data
necessary to prove the salamander population may deserve protection,” said Brian Nowicki
of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Today’s ruling should set the listing process back
on the right track and ultimately result in the Tiger Salamander getting the state protected
status it deserves.”

The decision reaffirms an earlier court decision that rejected the Fish and Game
Commission’s claim that there was insufficient proof that the salamander was imperiled.
The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the Commission in 2004 to list the California
Tiger Salamander as endangered due to the impacts of urban and agricultural
development.

“California deserves better than relying on court orders to compel the Fish and Game
Commission to uphold the law to protect the state’s wildlife,” said Nowicki. “Unfortunately,
the Commission continues to use this same discredited reasoning to improperly reject
other petitions to protect imperiled wildlife.”

The California Tiger Salamander is now set to advance to the status of candidate for state
listing. The Santa Barbara County salamander population has been listed as Endangered
under the federal Endangered Species Act since 2000, as has the Sonoma County
population since 2003. The central California population has been federally listed as
Threatened since 2004.

The California Tiger Salamander depends on ephemeral vernal pools for breeding, but in
recent decades ninety-five percent of California’s vernal pools have already been lost, and
at least 75 percent of the salamander’s habitat throughout the state has been eliminated.
In Sonoma County, 95 percent of the fragmented and minimal remaining salamander
habitat is threatened by development; the Santa Barbara population is also on the verge of
extinction.

In April, the Commission denied a listing petition to protect the American Pika, a small
relative of the rabbit, which is threatened by warming temperatures due to global climate
change. In July, the Commission denied a petition to protect the Pacific Fisher, a small
forest carnivore related to otters, which is threatened by logging and development in
California. In both cases, the Commission claimed a lack of information prevented them
from acting to protect the species.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a nonprofit conservation organization with 180,000
members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild
places.

Jeff Miller
Conservation Advocate
Center for Biological Diversity
351 California Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, California 94104
Phone: (415) 436-9682 x 303
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org