News release: Lawsuit launched seeking final protection for two California salamanders
The Center for Biological Diversity notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today of its intent to sue the agency for failing to finalize Endangered Species Act protections for the Kern Canyon and relictual slender salamanders. The salamanders are threatened by livestock grazing, logging, development and climate change. The Center first petitioned for the salamanders’ protection in 2012. The Service proposed protecting the Kern Canyon salamander as threatened and the relictual slender salamander as endangered in October 2022. This triggered a one-year deadline for the agency to finalize protections. … Both species are lungless, breathing through their skin. They’re terrestrial salamanders that catch invertebrates with projectile tongues. The salamanders are found close to water, including seeps and streams, and under objects such as logs, leaf litter and rocks. They’re thought to be highly sedentary, not moving far from where they were born.