Conservation Efforts

Listing on the Endangered Species Act

 

The arroyo toad was listed as endangered in 1994 by the USFWS (1) after being recognized as having lost a large portion their natural habitat (about 65% estimated lost) and population size.
 

Critical Habitat Designated (but not as much as should have been)

 

Critical habitat is defined in the ESA in section 3 as "the specific areas within the geographic area occupied by a species, at the time it is listed in accordance with the Act, on which are found those physical or biological features, essential to the conservation of the species and that may require special management considerations or protection" (2).

In 2001, 182,360 acres were designated as critical habitat in 8 counties in California (1), which was less than the recommended amount (9).

The real affront was in 2005, when the critical habitat designation was revised, and only 11,700 acres were designated critical habitat for the arroyo toad. This was about 90% less than what was proposed in 2000 by the scientists who researched the arroyo toad habitat, as shown in the figure below. The habitat was reduced due to political pressure and policy dictated by politically appointed Julie MacDonald, former deputy assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks at the United States Department of the Interior (9).



http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/amphibians/arroyo_toad/index.html

In 2011, the toad's critical habitat was increased to 98,366 acres (9), which is the amount that is currently protected. Some of the habitat was released as protected with the agreement that the land owners would protect the habitat themselves, such as Marine base Camp Pendleton land after showing they had their own plan in place (6).

Other Protection of Arroyo Toad Habitat

 

The Center for Biological Diversity has made some efforts to help protect the arroyo toad and its habitat. Since 2000, some of the efforts include closing parts of the Los Padres National Forest to protect arroyo toad habitat, closing a sand-and-gravel mine in Whitewater Canyon to protect one of the few remaining arroyo toad populations in the California Desert Conservation Area, and maintenance of Angeles National Forest closures along Southern California's Littlerock and Santiago creeks to off-road vehicles (9).

 

Current Fight to Keep Arroyo Toad Protected

 

There is a current petition to move the arroyo toad from being listed as endangered to threatened. This move will allow the use of special regulations, which are regulations that can reduce the normal protections for a threatened species. Special regulations cannot be taken with a endangered species. This is useful in situations where species-human conflicts arise as a species recovers. However, there may not be evidence of the arroyo toad's recovery to an acceptable level to warrant such a move (9). I hope that they have recovered, and that evidence showing that is found. However, if such evidence is not found, moving the arroyo toad from endangered to threatened may impact their ability to recover.