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Coyote Valley Development
Result could be new endangered species listings in the Santa Cruz Mountains
 
by Brian Schmidt

At a recent forum on wildlife migration corridors cosponsored by Committee for Green Foothills (see related article) biologist Grey Hayes pointed out that a practice of isolating portions of animal habitat could have drastic consequences under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ESA is rightly concerned with preserving the biodiversity not just of entire species, but also of subspecies and genetically distinct population segments within a species. Preserving these groups protects species against extinction by preserving genetic variety.

So what happens if a reasonably-sized population segment of a species becomes artificially isolated, something that may happen to badgers and mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains if Coyote Valley development cuts off animal movement from the Mount Hamilton Range? A Santa Cruz Mountain population that isn’t already genetically distinct, due to local conditions, will become distinct as its genes diverge from the much larger and now-separate Mount Hamilton population. In other words, a population that is isolated either starts off as a distinct segment, or becomes one in a few generations.

The ESA applies protection to distinct population segments, labeled “species” under the ESA’s terminology, as much as any larger group. If an ESA “species” is threatened with disappearance, it can be listed for protection against any act that harms the animal or its habitat. While the Santa Cruz Mountains may be large enough to have distinct populations of badgers and lions, they likely are not large enough to keep those populations safe from extinction if they are cut off from the Mount Hamilton Range.

The result of Coyote Valley development may be to force ESA listing and protection of badgers and mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains, something that would significantly affect Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz Counties. Indeed, just the fact that badgers and lions could disappear from this significant part of their range could be enough to justify listing them as “threatened” under the ESA, regardless of whether they constitute a distinct population segment.

Coyote Valley development will clearly have environmental, social, and economic consequences for the region if it isn’t stopped or mitigated.

Published Summer 2007 in Green Footnotes.

Page last updated August 22, 2007.