PETITION TO LIST THE JEMEZ MOUNTAINS SALAMANDER ...

WildEarth Guardians Petition to List
Jemez Mountains Salamander Under the ESA
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and research on this disease. It is not know what effects the fungus will have on the
Jemez Mountains salamander, but given the capacity of this disease to cause large
mortality events, the threat to populations of Jemez Mountains salamanders is great.
IV.
Inadequacy of Existing Regulatory Mechanisms
The Jemez Mountains salamander is imperiled throughout its range. Although federal
and state agencies have signed agreements to afford protection to this species, the
conservation measures in those agreements have failed to result in stabilizing or
increasing populations and it is believed that Jemez Mountains salamander populations
have decreased (Cummer et al. 2005). The lack of federal protection for this species has
resulted in more isolated and fragmented populations. Crucial habitat has been
threatened multiple times and in certain instances was destroyed or degraded due to
human actions.
Although regulatory documents include the MOA (USFS 1991), the Forest Plan
and its amendments regarding federally threatened and endangered species and
USFS sensitive species (USFS 1987; USFS 2004), the CMP (NMEST 2000b),
and the Conservation Agreement between and among the USFS, USFWS and
NMDGF (USFS 2000), the USFS continues to pursue activities which have
destructive consequences for populations of the Jemez Mountains salamander and
the habitat it requires (Tables 4 and 5). The central problem is that the MOA, or
the CMP, have no legal authority for enforcement. For example, the NMEST can
make suggestions to USFS, but there is no legal standing in the MOA that they
have to follow the NMEST’s recommendations.
While the CMP clearly states that Category 1 activities threaten the persistence of the
Jemez Mountains salamander and that Category 2 activities, while at times necessary, are
also detrimental to individuals and their habitat, these activities have continued to be
conducted and/or proposed within the Essential Zone and Priority Survey Zone, under
supervision of the US Forest Service. Cumulatively they have resulted in the decline of
Jemez Mountains salamander subpopulations and added to large-scale destruction of
suitable habitat.
Species status history state, federal, national and global status ranks and listings
As discussed previously, in 1992 the species the species was found not to warrant ESA
listing based on the signing of the 1991 MOA (57 FR 11459). At that time the species
was listed as threatened by the state of New Mexico. The species was reclassified in
1996 to a Federal Species of Concern, which provides no protection or triggers for
federal listing. In 1997, the Global Heritage Program ranked the salamander with a G2
status (rare/imperiled). During this same year the New Mexico Heritage Program listed
the Jemez Mountains salamander with an S2 ranking (imperiled), a rank it continues to
hold. In 1999 the New Mexico State legislature removed protection for state-threatened
species from take (Klingel 1999). Beginning in 2000 NMDGF and members of the
NMEST began discussing the need to have the Jemez Mountains salamander uplisted