Tiny salamanders could complicate Shasta Dam project - WKRC TV Cincinnati

-

FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2017, file photo, water flows from five of the gates on Shasta Dam for the first time in six years. (Greg Barnette/Record Searchlight via AP, File)

SHASTA LAKE, Calif. (AP) — A trio of salamander species in Northern California could complicate a controversial $1.4 billion public works project to heighten the Shasta Dam, the state's largest reservoir.

The Los Angeles Times reports Wednesday that two environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit last month asking a judge to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine if Shasta salamanders should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

One of the groups, the Center for Biological Diversity, asked the wildlife service in 2012 to declare the salamanders endangered or threatened, but the agency has not made a decision, said Jenny Loda, an attorney for the group.

Environmentalists say the project would destroy the amphibians' habitat and put them at risk of extinction.

The lawsuit was prompted in part by the federal government's sudden momentum in efforts to raise the Shasta Dam nearly two stories.

The California Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, passed in 1972, prohibits the 602-foot structure from getting any taller. But the Trump administration is moving forward with the plan.

Congress approved $20 million in March to jump start the heightening project and the Bureau of Reclamation, the Interior Department division overseeing the plan, expects to award initial construction contracts in late 2019.

The Shasta salamander was considered one species until April, when scientists split it into three species based on DNA analysis — the Shasta salamander, the Samwel Shasta salamander and the Wintu Shasta salamander, Loda said.



http://bit.ly/2Ri5j0x

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All In The Family: Maine Mother & Son Charged in Massive Drug Bust

-
Image
corso dog :: Article Creator Woman Hospitalized After Attack By 2 Dogs At Same Edmonton Home Where Boy Died: Lawyer UPDATE: On April 15, 2024, the City of Edmonton provided an update on the fatal attack. It said that prior to the deadly incident on April 1, "the city had no lawful basis to remove the dogs from the home." The city added that "all prior complaints about the dogs involved in this incident were investigated thoroughly and appropriate action was taken in accordance with the applicable legislation." The city also said a review found that its staff "acted appropriately in accordance with our standard practices and in compliance with the relevant legal constraints given the nature of past complaints and reports." A woman was hospitalized after being attacked in February by two large Cane Corso dogs at the same home where an 11-year-old boy was killed last week, the woman's lawyer told Global News. "I...
Read more

Rare Frogs And Illegal Drugs - Palisades Hudson Financial Group

-
Image
Colombian conservationist Ivan Lozano has hit on a brilliantly promising strategy to protect his country’s rare and endangered amphibians. His plan: Flood the market with them. Lozano is not hunting rare frogs in Colombia’s Andean forests. He is raising them himself and selling them at prices designed to undercut poachers and smugglers. If he can raise the frogs cheaply enough, and in large enough numbers, he might manage to drive down the market price to the point that poachers no longer find it worthwhile to harvest and smuggle the creatures onto the black markets. Lozano told The Associated Press that his company also encourages collectors to breed their own frogs. Picture yourself as a poacher. If the government toughens the legal penalties and steps up enforcement, you will shrug your shoulders; legal risks are a basic cost of doing business. Since the demand for your product already exists among foreign collectors and other buyers, tougher enforcement merely reduces supply a...
Read more

Burn scars, winter storms threaten rare and endangered species in San Gabriel Mountains - The Bakersfield Californian

-
Image
LOS ANGELES — Up until a few weeks ago, the West Fork of the San Gabriel River was one of the most abundant wildlife habitats in Los Angeles County, a secluded and rugged area defined by its steep peaks, lush canyons and mixture of rare and endangered species. Recently however, a team of federal biologists and forest rangers was aghast when it visited the stream following the Bobcat fire, which has burned more than 115,000 acres in the heart of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Terrain that once resembled a High Sierra granite gorge now looked like ground zero after a nuclear explosion, and the usually clean mountain air was sharp with the stench of smoke. Particularly unsettling were the bare and ashen slopes that were now primed to dissolve under pounding winter storms. A heavy mudslide, experts said, could reverse decades of conservation efforts by inundating the last outposts for such federally protected species as the Santa Ana sucker fish and Southern California m...
Read more