SACRAMENTO - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is making available to the public the Draft Recovery Plan for the Santa Rosa Plain. It will cover the endangered Sonoma County Distinct Population Segment of the California tiger salamander and three endangered plants: Sonoma sunshine, Burke’s goldfields, and Sebastopol meadowfoam.
“A recovery plan charts a course for the Service and our partners to work together in recovering imperiled species,” said Jennifer Norris, Field Supervisor for Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office. “We encourage the public to review and comment on this draft plan so that our strategy incorporates the best available science and provides the best possible road map for success.”
The Draft Recovery Plan for the Santa Rosa Plain can be found at www.fws.gov/endangered/species/recovery-plans.html and www.fws.gov/sacramento. Comments on the draft recovery plan will be accepted through February 9, 2015. You may submit written comments and information by mail or in person to the Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office, 2800 Cottage Way, Suite W-2605, Sacramento, CA 95825; Attention: Recovery Planning Division, FWS-R8-ES-2014-N225.
The Santa Rosa Plain is located in central Sonoma County where the native habitat is characterized by seasonal wetlands and associated grasslands that support a variety of flora and fauna. The species covered by the draft recovery plan all have naturally limited geographic ranges and are constrained because they occupy rare habitat within that range. The listed plants covered by the recovery plan grow only in these seasonal wetlands. The Sonoma County California tiger salamander uses those wetlands during the breeding season and lives in the surrounding areas year-round.
The primary threat to these species is modification and destruction of suitable habitat due to urbanization, agricultural conversion, competition with non-native plants, and climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.
Learn more about climate change . The recovery plan focuses on preserving remaining habitat and reducing fragmentation and buffering against encroaching development. The Service currently estimates the total incremental economic effect of this recovery plan at $463 million over the next fifty years. The actions outlined in the recovery plan are voluntary and not regulatory in nature. The Service is committed to working with people for the conservation and recovery of these imperiled species.
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