Federal Agency Redraws Map For Protecting Endangered Species

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has issued a revised map for protecting the California tiger salamander in Sonoma County, California. The new map designates less than 1/3 of the area as, "critical habitat" for the endangered species as the original map. A large part of the area removed from the map was either already developed or planned for future development. As previously posted, the effort to get the agency to revise their map was led by officials with the City of Petaluma. Fish & Wildlife officials were quoted in the Petaluma Argus Courier as saying that the "critical habitat" designation was required under a lawsuit, and was "driven by the courts, not by biology."