No Federal Endangered Species Act Protection for Shasta Salamander
Last week, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) issued its decision to not list three salamander species as endangered or threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. The decision applies to the Samwel salamander (Hydromantes samweli), Shasta salamander, (H. shastae), and Wintu salamander (H. wintu), which have a historical range that includes portions of Shasta County, California.
The USFWS decision came in response to a 2018 lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), in which CBD alleged that a plan to raise the level of the Shasta dam would threaten the survival of the salamanders. The USFWS recognized that raising the dam would affect individuals and habitat; however, the USFWS decision notes that the loss would be “very limited relative to the overall number of detection sites and remaining available suitable habitat in each species’ range.”
Read more in the USFWS decision here or in this news article.