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In 2001 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated 854,000 acres of critical habitat for the Peninsular bighorn sheep, allowing wildlife professionals to improve land-use practices for the benefit of the species. The Bureau of Land Management removed disease-carrying livestock from 226,026 acres, closed illegal roads, and instituted seasonal road closures in lambing areas where the sheep birth and raise their young. The U.S. Forest Service removed livestock from 17,892 acres of the sheep habitat it manages. Local communities have begun to incorporate bighorn sheep conservation concerns into their land use planning. Conservation measures such as these were not put into place in areas outside of the critical habitat designation. In 2003, the California Department of Game and Fish estimated that there were 500 wild Peninsular bighorn sheep in the U.S. -- a 49 percent increase in the population since the species was listed and critical habitat management practices begun.
The Little Kern Golden Trout is one of six trout species native to California. The fish is identified by its bright red to red orange cheeks, golden lower sides, and the reddish-orange band across its olive and gold-speckled body. Pure strains of Little Kern Golden Trout are known to exist in Soda Spring Creek, Deadman Creek, Wet Meadows Creek, Willow Creek, Fish Creek, and Coyote Creek. A recovery plan for the Little Kern Golden Trout was completed by the California Department of Fish and Game and adopted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1984. Implementation of this recovery plan has succeeded in restoring Little Kern Golden Trout to approximately 32 miles of streams and three lakes within the Little Kern Rover Watershed, a 34 percent increase in the range of the species since management under the Endangered Species Act began.
Currently the Pitkin Marsh lily is awaiting the development of a recovery plan and the designation of critical habitat. Peninsular bighorn sheep and little Kern golden trout photos courtesy USFWS. |
Bighorn sheep are the monarchs of the world's mountain ranges. The Peninsular bighorn sheep inhabits the foothills of Southern California's Peninsular Mountains. A popular game animal, the number of Peninsular bighorns declined by 77 percent in the United States after decades of habitat loss from urban sprawl, road construction, off-road vehicle use, overgrazing by livestock,and diseases spread by domestic sheep. The sheep was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1998. By 2000, only 334 wild peninsular bighorn sheep remained in the United States.
The official State Fish of California, the Little Kern Golden Trout is endemic to the Kern River Watershed in Tulare County, California. A valuable sportfish, the trout declined to fewer than 5,000 individuals in less than 11 miles of stream owing to displacement by intentionally introduced non-native trout. The Little Kern Golden Trout was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 1978 and critical habitat for the fish was designated that same year within the boundaries of Sequoia National Park.
The Pitkin Marsh lily is endemic to the freshwater marshes and meadows of Sonoma County, California. This beautiful perennial with its elegant stem and nodding orange and red flower is now known to exist in the wild in only three, privately owned, locations; its range having been curtailed by the draining of wetlands, cattle grazing and the harvesting of the flower for domestic, ornamental use. The lily's rarity prompted its listing as an Endangered Species under the Endangered Species Act in 1997.