Iguana b&w text


the survey, they were stable over a 13-
year period. The survey results suggest
that Common Chuckwalla populations
are stable in these island preserves in a sea
of urban development.

Hurricane Katrina and 
Mississippi Turtles

The Yellow-blotched Sawback
(Graptemys flavimaculata) is a riverine
turtle that is endemic to the Pascagoula
River system of southern Mississippi.
Population declines led to Federal listing
as a threatened species in 1991, with the
most robust population inhabiting the
Lower Pascagoula River near Vancleave

(~24 river km from the Pascagoula River
mouth). SELMANI AND QUALLS (2008.
Herpetological Conservation and Biology
3:224–230) conducted a mark-resight
survey of this population during the
spring and summer of 2005–2006. On
29 August 2005, Hurricane Katrina
entered the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the
location of their study site. On 13
October 2005, they conducted a one-
hour preliminary visual survey by boat
through the study area and identified
eight individuals that had been marked
prior to Katrina’s landfall, demonstrating
that at least some of the 49 previously
marked individuals remained in the
study area. In October 2005–2006, the

authors conducted more extensive mark-
resight surveys within the same section
of river. The population estimate for
2006 was significantly lower than the
2005 population estimate for the same
stretch of river, suggesting that numbers
substantially decreased during the year
following the hurricane. Of the plausible
explanations for this pattern, the avail-
able evidence most strongly supports a
real decline in population, presumably
due to the long-term impact of
Hurricane Katrina. Possible reasons for
such a long-term effect include hurri-
cane induced saltwater intrusion and
low levels of dissolved oxygen with direct
effects on individuals or indirect effects
on the prey populations (e.g., gastropods
and other aquatic macroinvertebrates).

248 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 4  •  DECEMBER 2008 NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS

California Tiger Salamander 
Moves Closer to Protection

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 endan-
gered 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 California Tiger Salamander is
now set to advance to the status of can-
didate 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 popu-
lation 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, 95% of California’s vernal pools
have already been lost, and at least 75%
of the salamander’s habitat throughout
the state has been eliminated. In
Sonoma County, 95% of the frag-
mented and minimal remaining sala-
mander habitat is threatened by develop-
ment; the Santa Barbara population also
is on the verge of extinction.

N E W S B R I E F S

Common Chuckwalla (Sauromalus ater) populations appear to be stable in islands of suitable
habitat in a “sea” of urban development. 

Population sizes of Yellow-blotched Sawbacks
(Graptemys flavimaculata) dropped during
the year following Hurricane Katrina, prob-
ably due to saltwater intrusions and low dis-
solved oxygen levels affecting turtles directly
or their prey.

B
IL

L 
LO

V
E

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. 

G
A

R
Y

 N
A

FI
S



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 4  •  DECEMBER 2008 249NEWSBRIEFS

Proposal to Increase Critical Habitat
for California Frogs

Under scrutiny for political corruption
regarding numerous endangered species
decisions and facing a lawsuit over
improper tampering with protected crit-
ical habitat, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service is proposing to restore significant
areas of critical habitat for the California
Red-legged Frog (Rana draytonii). The
Service has proposed quadrupling the
protected areas by designating approxi-
mately 1,804,865 acres of critical habitat
for the frog in 28 California counties.
“No endangered species can survive
without its habitat intact, and the Red-
legged Frog desperately needs protection
of adequate wetlands habitat throughout
its former range,” said Jeff Miller, conser-
vation advocate with the Center for
Biological Diversity. “Today’s proposal is
step toward biologically meaningful pro-
tections for the frog, but unfortunately
numerous other endangered species still
have inadequate habitat protections
because bureaucrats have illegally slashed
millions of acres from proposals by
agency scientists.”

In November 2007, under pressure
brought about by the Center and the
media highlighting Interior Department
corruption, the Service announced the
reversal of six illegal Endangered Species
Act decisions, including the California
Red-legged Frog’s 2006 critical habitat
designation. The Service listed the Red-
legged Frog as a threatened species in
1996. It published a proposed rule to
designate 4,138,064 acres of critical habi-
tat in 2004. In response to a lawsuit by
developers, the Service revised the pro-
posal in 2005 to only 737,912 acres, and
finalized the rule in 2006 with just
450,288 acres — a reduction of 90%
from the original proposed rule.

This proposal would increase the
critical habitat by approximately
1,354,577 acres. “Even with the
announced increase in acreage, the Red-
legged Frog will receive habitat protec-
tion for less than half the areas that
agency biologists have identified as essen-
tial for the recovery of the species,” said
Miller. “Under the Bush administration,
the Fish and Wildlife Service has consis-
tently slashed the size of proposed critical
habitats, so we will be watching the final
designation closely.

Made famous in the Mark Twain
story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County,” the California Red-
legged Frog has lost more than 70% of its
historic habitat. Frog populations have
declined due to habitat loss from urban-
ization and introduction of exotic species
such as Bullfrogs. The Red-legged Frog is
believed to be extinct in the Central
Valley and is extirpated from 99% of its
Sierra Nevada range. Currently, the
strongest breeding populations remaining
are found along the coast from San
Mateo to San Luis Obispo counties. The
Red-legged Frog prefers ponds, marshes,
and creeks with still water. It requires
riparian and upland areas with dense veg-
etation and open areas for cover, aestiva-
tion (summertime hibernation), food,
and basking. Undisturbed riparian vege-
tation also is necessary for female frogs to
attach their egg masses, which float on the
surface until they hatch in 5–7 months.

Agreement Protects Native Fish and
Amphibians from Fish-stocking

The Pacific Rivers Council and the
Center for Biological Diversity reached
an agreement with the California
Department of Fish and Game on
interim measures to limit harm to native
species caused by fish-stocking. The
intent is to minimize the harm that
hatchery-raised fish inflict on sensitive
native fish and amphibian species while
the Department prepares an
Environmental Impact Report under the
California Environmental Quality Act.
The Agreement was spurred by a tenta-
tive order issued by Sacramento Superior
Court Judge Patrick Marlette finding
that stocking could cause irreparable
harm to native species. “Interim meas-
ures limiting stocking are needed to help
save California’s native fish and frogs
from extinction,” said Noah Greenwald,

biodiversity program director for the
Center for Biological Diversity. “Fish and
Game will still be able to stock hatchery
fish, but mainly in places where they
won’t harm native species.”

Florida Turtles Need a Reprieve
Several of the world’s leading turtle scien-
tists have called on the Governor of
Florida to end the commercial hunting
of turtles which supplies eastern Asia.
The experts, brought together by the
Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist
Group of IUCN’s Species Survival
Commission, made their plea in a letter
to Governor Charlie Crist. “Florida’s
freshwater turtles are being harvested at
an unsustainable rate to supply East
Asian food and medicinal markets,” the
letter said. “New rules recently imple-
mented by the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission (FWC) do
not resolve this issue.”

On 17 September 2008, the FWC
had voted to allow commercial fishermen
to catch 20 softshell turtles a day.
“Although this was an improvement, as

The Cascades Frog (Rana cascadae; top),
Northern Leopard Frog (Lithobates [Rana]
pipiens; middle), and Oregon Spotted Frog
(Rana pretiosa; bottom) are among the
amphibian species that will benefit from a
new agreement limiting the stocking of non-
native fish to many California waters.

D
IM

IT
A

R
 B

O
JA

N
TC

H
EV

SH
A

U
LA

 H
ED

W
A

LL
W

A
LT

ER
 S

IE
G

M
U

N
D

The California Red-legged Frog (Rana dray-
tonii) has lost more than 70% of its historic
habitat. Frog populations have declined due
to habitat loss from urbanization and intro-
duction of exotic species such as Bullfrogs. 

G
A

R
Y

 M
. F

EL
LE

R
S,

 U
SG

S



previously there were no catch limits, the
limit is still too high,” says Anders
Rhodin, Chair of IUCN’s Tortoise and
Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. “Two
fishermen working five days a week
could take 200 animals or three-quarters
of a ton of turtles a week. That is not
adequate protection for Florida’s wild
turtle populations.”

The 32 turtle experts recom-
mended that the FWC make a rule that
allows individuals to take no more than
one turtle a day from the wild and two
turtles a day per group of individuals.
They called on Governor Crist to ask the
Commission to enact this rule.

The FWC had argued that most
turtles exported from Florida are farm-
raised, but according to the experts the
numbers are misleading. Although 90%
of the individual turtles exported from
Florida are from farms, these are nearly
all tiny hatchlings, they say, and the bulk
of shipments by weight appear to be
wild-caught adult turtles.

“An FWC Law Enforcement
Intelligence Bulletin from March 2008
reported 1,600–3,000 lbs of live turtles
flown out of Tampa weekly,” says Matt
Aresco, a spokesperson for the IUCN
Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist
Group. “It seems unlikely that these are
all farmed hatchlings, which only weigh
about one third of an ounce each.”

The experts said their best guess is
that these are mostly adult Florida
Softshell Turtles (Apalone ferox), but
added they don’t know for sure because

FWC does not collect data on the
species, sizes, or numbers of turtles that
are being sent out of state. They recom-
mended a permanent end to the com-
mercial harvest of turtles in Florida.

In a welcome and strong demon-
stration of political support for wildlife
protection, Governor Crist responded to
the letter by urging the FWC to consider
moving toward a complete ban on har-
vesting of wild turtles in Florida.

IUCN, 25 November 2008

Don’t Muddy Ohio Waters
The Ohio Environmental Protection
Agency should be in charge of protecting
the state’s waterways from pollution,
whether that pollution comes from a fac-
tory pipe, a large-scale farm, or the
byproducts of mining coal. A proposed
bill to put state mining officials in charge
of granting water-pollution permits for
coalmines is a bad idea.

State Senator Timothy J. Grendell
(R-Chesterland) is behind the bill to
switch authority from the EPA to mining
bureaucrats in the Ohio Department of
Natural Resources. This proposal is sim-
ilar to a 2001 state law — also a bad idea
— that transferred the state EPA’s
authority to regulate large-scale livestock
farms to the Department of Agriculture.
That transfer still isn’t final, because the
U.S. EPA, which has ultimate responsi-
bility for enforcing the 1972 federal
Clean Water Act, hasn’t approved it.

In a recent public-comment meeting,
opponents of the farm-regulation switch

pointed out that the Department of
Agriculture’s mission is to promote farm-
ing in Ohio, not to be a watchdog. The
same potential for conflict of interest exists
in putting ODNR’s Division of Mineral
Resources Management in charge of
water-pollution permits for mines.

The timing of the bill lends weight to
the suspicion that the real goal is to allow
an end run by a major mine company
that has been denied a permit by the EPA.
Murray Energy Corp., owner of Ohio’s
largest underground coalmines, wants to
bury Casey Run, a 2-mile-long stream in
eastern Ohio, under a 1.85-billion-gallon
coal-slurry lagoon. Slurry is water contam-
inated with coal dust after it has been used
to wash coal. In 2005, a broken slurry
pipeline from a Murray Energy-owned
mine blackened 2,300 feet of Belmont
County’s Captina Creek, killing thousands
of fish in a habitat that supports the
endangered Hellbender salamander.

Casey Run is a tributary of Captina
Creek. EPA scientists, in recommending
denial of the permit for the massive
lagoon, said it would pose “insurmount-
able” environmental concerns for the
high-quality water resource. Murray offi-
cials say they’ll have to close two mines
employing about 1,000 people if they
can’t build the slurry lagoon, but EPA and
ODNR officials said the company could
find other ways to dispose of its waste.

Murray Energy’s checkered track
record of multiple environmental and
safety violations in Ohio and elsewhere,
including the Crandall Canyon mine
cave-in that killed six men in Utah in
August 2007, argues against easing regu-
lation of the company. Regardless of one
company’s history, safeguarding Ohio’s
waterways should remain with the
agency for which environmental protec-
tion is the core mission.

Columbus Dispatch
3 December 2008

250 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 4  •  DECEMBER 2008 NEWSBRIEFS

Endangered Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus
alleganiensis) occur in Ohio streams affected
by pollution from coalmines. 

A
D

A
M

 L
. C

R
A

N
E

Most of the 1,600–3,000 lbs of live turtles flown out of Tampa each week probably are Florida
Softshell Turtles (Apalone ferox) destined for East Asian food and medicinal markets. 

SU
ZA

N
N

E 
L.

 C
O

LL
IN

S,
 C

N
A

H