Comment on FR Doc # 2010-06108

COASTAL PLAINS INSTITUTE AND LAND CONSERVANCY 1313 Milton Street, Tallahassee, FL 32303 pho 850-681-6208; fax 850-681-6123 means@bio.fsu.edu www.coastalplains.org 17 May 2010 Attn: FWS-R4-ES-2010-0007 Division of Policy and Directives Management U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 222 Arlington, VA 22203 Dear Sirs and Madams, Please accept the following as our comments in response to your request for scientific information under your 23 March 2010 90-day Finding on a Petition to List the Striped Newt as Threatened. We, the undersigned, are the original petitioners for threatened status for the striped newt (Notophthalmus perstriatus) and we now wish to add some data for your consideration that we have gathered since 14 July 2008. Our comments are in two parts. The first is data we have continued to gather on one of our principal study ponds. The second is data we have continued to gather on all the known ponds in which we have found, over the years, specimens of the striped newt. Part 1. One of us (DBM) has been observing striped newts in a particular breeding pond we call Study Pond #1 since 25 March 1966. Between that date and 8 September 1995, the striped newt was found to be abundant during dipnetting on 96 of 121 visits to that pond (on some visits the pond was dry and other visits were at seasons when newts had metamorphosed and breeding adults had not yet migrated into the pond). On 9-8-95 an 1100-ft drift fence was emplaced completely around Study Pond #1 and its 56 five-gallon drop buckets checked every two days for the next decade (see Table 1 below). We began noticing a decline of striped newts moving in and out of Study Pond #1 about the year 2000 following a drought. Following the cessation in 2005 of the drift fence operation around Study Pond #1, we continued to monitor the pond's amphibian life by dipnetting and seining during the critical months of January through June when adults, larvae, and sexually mature neotenes could be present (see Table 2 below). Alas, in the six years since removal of the drift fence, we have not found a single striped newt in Study Pond #1. Moreover, a related species, the common newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) seems to have declined to very low numbers (Table 2). Part 2. Study Pond #1 is part of a larger study of 273 ponds in the Munson Sandhills of Leon County, Florida, whose amphibian life we have been monitoring since the mid-1990s. We were surprised that over the years we and colleagues have been unable to document more than 20 ponds in which the striped newt could be found. See Figure #1 for a map of these 20 ponds. After about the year 2000, we also began noticing a decline in our ability to find the species during intensive seining and dipnetting in all 20 of the striped newt ponds. These ponds have experienced some severe droughts during the past decade, but we believe that all of the species of amphibians that utilize these ponds are probably well adapted to survive such droughts. In recent years substantial hydroperiods at the proper season for breeding have been reestablished in most of these ponds. In fact, conditions in all 20 of the known striped newt ponds have been superb for breeding this past winter. We have just completed the most intensive seining and dipnetting activity we have ever conducted in 17 of the 20 striped newt ponds. We found NO STRIPED NEWTS in any pond and only three common newts in just two of 17 ponds. We intend to sample the remaining ponds, but these are ponds in which only one adult was ever taken one time, so they were not high on our list of sampling priorities. Conclusions. We are more alarmed than ever that the striped newt has experienced a severe decline--if not a complete extirpation--in the Munson Sandhills, and we see that its closest local relative, the common newt, has also become quite rare. We therefore urge the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the striped newt as a threatened species. Sincerely yours, D. Bruce Means, Ph.D. President and Executive Director Ryan C. Means Biologist Rebecca M. Means Biologist Table 1. Total numbers of individuals during immigration into (IN) and emigration out (OUT) of Study Pond #1, by year from 1995 - 2005, for selected species of salamanders. Year Ambystoma Notophthalmus Notophthalmus talpoideum perstriatus viridescens IN OUT IN OUT IN OUT 1: 1995-1996 595 6376 73 168 111 536 2: 1996-1997 718 556 91 10 149 26 3: 1997-1998 675 690 77 419 55 467 4: 1998-1999 29 323 79 1106 241 2547 5: 1999-2000 1 0 0 0 17 0 6: 2000-2001 543 171 5 0 16 11 7: 2001-2002 34 36 1 0 1 1 8: 2002-2003 26 122 0 0 15 8 9: 2003-2004 38 480 1 3 13 13 10: 2004-2005 34 18 0 0 4 15 Table 2. Salamander presence in Study Pond 1 during seining/dipnetting surveys after closure of the drift fence, 05/17/05 – 5-6-10. Date Ambystoma talpoideum Notophthalmus perstriatus Notophthalmus viridescens 5/17/05 0 0 0 2/15/06 0 0 13 3/14/06 0 0 15 7/7/06 pond dry pond dry pond dry 8/1/06 pond dry pond dry pond dry 1/27/07 0 0 0 3/12/07 10s 0 3 4-7-07 10s 0 0 1-22-08 pond dry pond dry pond dry 4-30-08 0 0 0 5-24-08 pond dry pond dry pond dry 12-22-08 0 0 0 1-3-09 0 0 0 ? 09 data coming coming coming 2-15-10 10s 0 0 5-6-10 100s 0 2