SACRAMENTO, Calif.— The Center for Biological Diversity today sued the Trump administration for delaying Endangered Species Act protections for the Kern Canyon slender salamander and relictual slender salamander in California.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the Kern Canyon slender salamander as threatened and the relictual slender salamander as endangered in October 2022, triggering a one-year deadline to finalize their protection.
Since the inauguration, the Trump administration has thrown the Fish and Wildlife Service, and other agencies into chaos by firing hundreds of employees, enacting hiring freezes and by other means. Much of the disruption has been coordinated by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“The chaos DOGE created means these precious salamanders won’t see protection anytime soon and that’s why we’re going to court,” said Tara Zuardo, senior advocate at the Center. “Protecting these salamanders and their habitat goes hand in hand with protecting other wildlife, clean water and people.”
The proposal to protect the two salamanders included protection for 2,051 acres of critical habitat for the Kern Canyon slender salamander and 2,685 acres for the relictual slender salamander.
The Kern Canyon slender salamander and relictual slender salamander have small ranges in the southern Sierra Nevada, where decades of livestock grazing, logging and development — including the construction of the Isabella Dam and state Route 178 — have taken their toll.
The Kern Canyon slender salamander is believed to survive at just nine sites and the relictual slender salamander at 12. The latter species has been lost altogether from the Lower Kern River Canyon. The Kern Canyon species was first identified as needing protection in 1982 and the relictual slender salamander in 1994.
Both species are lungless and breathe through their skin. These terrestrial salamanders catch invertebrates with their projectile tongues. The salamanders are found close to water, including seeps and streams, under cover objects such as logs, leaf litter and rocks. They are thought to be highly sedentary, not moving far from where they were born.
