After a long legal battle, the Center of Biological Diversity is celebrating the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to designate more than 98,000 acres of critical habitat for the arroyo toad. The habitat includes portions of Monterey and Santa Barbara counties, and most of Southern California. According to a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity, the George W. Bush administration tried to designate 11,695 critical habitat acres for the toad, prompting the center to challenge the move in court. Currently, only 23 populations of arroyo toads survive, scattered from Monterey to San Diego counties. When the arroyo toad was listed under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1994, it had lost more than 75 percent of its historic habitat to development, and further reductions have occurred due to habitat destruction, hydrological changes, non-native species, mining, and agriculture. Now the animals exist only in small, isolated populations in the headwaters of coastal streams. Center officials say the toad will need additional habitat to make a full recovery.
This article appears in Feb 17-24, 2011.
