Tag: amphibians

Author SuzannePosted on Categories Habitats, Water, WildlifeTags , , , ,

‘Puddles and ditches’: California considers protecting wetlands from Trump order

Alastair Bland, CALMATTERS

Legislators and environmentalists are considering how to safeguard California’s wetlands after the Trump administration announced its plans to rein in — once again — the nation’s 53-year-old law protecting waterways.

At stake are seasonal streams, ponds and pools, which are only inundated part of the time and found throughout the Southwest. In California, an estimated 80% of all linear miles of streams and rivers are ephemeral or intermittent.

The Trump administration’s plan to alter the Clean Water Act’s definition of wetlands to exclude such waterways could render vast areas of California essentially unprotected from developers and growers.

The plan proposed by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin on Wednesday comes as no surprise. Trump ordered the same move during his first stint in the White House. In 2017 Trump called many wetlands “puddles and ditches” and said the rules were “one of the worst examples of federal regulation and it has truly run amok.” The Biden administration in 2022 enacted new rules that reversed his decision.

During Trump’s first term, California officials said they would take action to protect the state’s wetlands from the president’s order. The State Water Resources Control Board in 2019 adopted new rules to strengthen protection of waters and establish a “single accepted definition of wetlands at the state level.”

Now a new bill introduced last month, Senate Bill 601, would build in more protection, amending the state Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act to copy existing federal protections. It would, among other provisions, require new permitting rules for pollutants from business operations or construction.

Read more at https://calmatters.org/environment/2025/03/california-wetlands-trump-clean-water-act/

Author SuzannePosted on Categories WildlifeTags , ,

Best places to spot migrating newts in the North Bay

Jeanne Wirka, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

It’s breeding season for some species of amphibians – an ideal time to find them out and about

Holding a newt is one of the most sought-after wildlife encounters among the North Bay’s elementary school set. Each year, thousands of school kids eagerly await their field trip to one of our regional newt hotspots — Stuart Creek at Bouverie Preserve, the Frog Pond at Spring Lake Regional Park, Ledson Marsh at Trione-Annadel State Park and Martin Griffin Preserve on Bolinas Lagoon, to name a few.

It’s no wonder kids warm to these tiny cold-blooded critters. Unlike other wildlife their size, newts are eminently watchable. They don’t run or fly away, bite, scratch or sting. They don’t slime you with mucus like a banana slug, smear you in musk like a garter snake or pee on you like a toad.

You don’t have to be a kid, however, for a newt to steal your heart.

“Newts are so sweet, and soft and innocent-looking,” said Sally Gale of Chileno Valley in Marin County.

Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/lifestyle/10572558-181/how-to-spot-north-bay

Author SuzannePosted on Categories WildlifeTags

Frogs are singing for spring in Sonoma County

Jeanne Wirka, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
We humans have come up with some poetic collective nouns for animals. A murder of crows. A parliament of owls. Even a shrewdness of apes (now also the name of a band). So it seems we missed the proverbial lily pad when we came up with the term “army” to describe the millions of frogs that welcome spring with their delightful and often deafening chorus. As few Californians are more joyously vocal about the possible end to the California drought this year, I humbly offer a happiness of frogs as an alternative.
The frogs we hear performing their seasonal symphony right now in the North Bay are Pacific chorus frogs, or sometimes called simply tree frogs. Sticklers for taxonomic accuracy will correctly point out that our local Pacific chorus frog was recently renamed the Sierran chorus frog (Pseudacris sierra) when the genus that was formerly known as Pseudacris regilla was split into three species. Because there remains controversy surrounding the name change, I and many other local naturalists are sticking with Pacific chorus frog as the more descriptive and intuitive moniker.
How do I know it’s a Pacific chorus frog?
Pacific chorus frogs range in color through a palette of bright yellow-greens, creamy oranges, reddish tinges, and most commonly a mottled beige or brown. While general coloring of an individual frog does not change, all color varieties have a spectacular ability to adjust their brightness in response to temperature, humidity and even stress. Pacific chorus frogs also vary greatly in size. An adult frog recently transformed from its tadpole form could easily perch on the tip of your pinkie finger. These diminutive “metamorphs” can eventually grow to a maximum of about 2 inches from the tip of their nose to their urostyle, a posterior section of fused vertebrae roughly analogous to a “rump.”
Read more at: Frogs are singing for spring in Sonoma County | The Press Democrat