Background
The current California ARSSC taxon list is based on Jennings and Hayes (1994). Previous SSC lists developed in collaboration with the California Department of Fish and Game were based on a combination of literature review, best available evidence, and expert opinion to determine a list of taxa that were not protected under federal or state law, but were clearly declining and in need of some level of protection if they were to avoid listing at a later date. Following the process used for the California Bird Species of Special Concern (2008), we have made every effort to emphasize transparency, quantifiable metrics of decline, and strong community involvement to develop the most accurate possible list for this update of California’s species of special concern.
Process
This webpage represents the public input part of the ARSSC process (see Timeline). Once the public input phase has ended, the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC, see below) will compile all of the public input and update the metric scores, maps, and species reviews accordingly. At that point, the TAC will have all of the data necessary to determine the SSC species list. The final writing stage of the ARSSC document will produce a comprehensive species account for each SSC, each of which will be sent to outside experts for review. The final ARSSC document is expected to be completed Fall 2010.
Technical Advisory Committee
The ARSSC Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is comprised of members from the California Department of Fish and Game, the Center for Population Biology at UC - Davis, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the private sector. As a group, members of the TAC represent a wide range of expertise on California reptiles and amphibians with respect to both taxa and geography.
Candidate Taxon List
The candidate taxon list is comprised of all currently designated SSC taxa and those that the TAC felt warranted evaluation. See the summary table under “Species Reviews” to see the complete candidate taxa list and preliminary metric scores.
Taxonomy
Reptile and amphibian systematics and taxonomy has been a particularly active field of study since the first ARSSC document was completed. The current SSC list contains species, subspecies, populations, and unnamed taxa. We have generally followed the most recent taxonomic revisions available, focusing almost exclusively on named taxa for our review, but recognizing diversity and population structure where necessary. See the “Taxonomic relationships” section in each species review for more detail.
Maps
We are grateful to the following museum collections for allowing the use of their data: California Academy of Science, Carnegie Museum, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, University of Colorado Museum, and the Yale Peabody Museum.
Risk Metrics
The risk metrics were developed by the TAC to evaluate the status of candidate taxa. These metrics were modeled after those used for the Bird Species of Special Concern (2008) document, with modifications for reptile and amphibian taxa as appropriate. Our goal was to produce metric scores that are transparent, repeatable, and based on solid evidence.
The Species Review section contains brief reports for each taxon with the metrics evaluated based on literature reviews and the expertise within the TAC. These species reviews are not final species accounts; final species accounts will be more extensive reviews of each taxon’s biology.
For some metrics, it was not possible to produce a justifiable score with available information. In these cases metrics are scored as “Data deficient”. Given the prevalence of data deficient metric scores, we have summarized each species’ final metric score as the total score divided by the total possible, thereby excluding data deficient categories. If all metrics are scored, the total possible score is 110, with higher scores interpreted as being of more conservation concern. If, for example, a category with a maximum score of 10 is data deficient, then the total possible score for that taxon is 100. All “total scores” are divided by the total points possible for that taxon, and are presented as a percentage to correct for data deficient metrics. A few taxa in the state are listed at the federal, but not state, level. These taxa are automatically considered SSC by the state and are scored as NA (not applicable) for each metric and will automatically be included in the final list.
