Support federal protection for two rare Kern Canyon salamanders
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Threatened Species Status With Section 4(d) Rule for the Kern Canyon Slender Salamander and Endangered Species Status for the Relictual Slender Salamander; Designation of Critical Habitat
Fish and Wildlife Service· Kern CanyonFederal Register 2026-13719 ↗
Two salamander species found only in Kern County could gain endangered species protections and critical habitat designation.
What’s at risk
The Kern Canyon slender salamander and relictual slender salamander exist nowhere else on Earth and face enough threats to warrant federal listing. Without this rule, their habitat in Kern Canyon has no guaranteed legal protection.
If we stay silent
Both species gain permanent federal protections under the Endangered Species Act and designated critical habitat, making it much harder for development or land disturbance to destroy the only places these salamanders survive.
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
3 holes in the agency’s own analysis
What the public could have raised, from the agency’s own document
- I support this action and urge the agency to advance it.
- Support listing the Kern Canyon slender salamander as threatened and the relictual slender salamander as endangered under the Endangered Species Act to give both California species legal protection.
- Designating critical habitat for both species in Kern County, California is the right step to ensure their survival by identifying and protecting the land they need.
- The section 4(d) rule for the Kern Canyon slender salamander should reflect the public comments already submitted, and I urge the Fish and Wildlife Service to adopt a strong final provision.
- Say something only you can say. The law requires the agency to consider and respond to substantive comments, and specifics are what make a comment substantive.
In the agency’s own words
We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are reopening the comment period on our October 18, 2022, proposed rule (2022 proposed rule), and November 21, 2023, revised proposed rule (2023 revised proposed rule) to list the Kern Canyon slender salamander (Batrachoseps simatus) and the relictual slender salamander (Batrachoseps relictus) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act), to designate critical habitat for both species, and to issue a rule under section 4(d) of the Act for the Kern Canyon slender salamander. This action will allow all interested parties an additional opportunity to co…
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