California’s war on endangered species: Why its most water-dependent creatures are worth saving

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http://www.salon.com/2014/10/12/californias_war_on_endangered_species_why_its_most_water_dependent_creatures_are_worth_saving/



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Norment spoke with Salon about the personal inspiration he takes from these resilient species, and about the reasons — beyond mere practicality — why preserving biodiversity continues to matter. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

I wanted to start with your approach. How did you choose to feature these six species? What it was about them that you found unique and book-worthy?

To go back just a little bit, my first job as a biologist way back in the ’70s was working in the Death Valley area. I was focused there on large mammals. But when I was up in Death Valley, I really grew to love that portion of the American Southwest, the Mojave Desert, and when it came time for a sabbatical, I wanted to go back to that part of the world. So there was sort of this landscape aesthetic that was really important to me. But I also wanted to work on species that were really different from the ones that I typically worked on — I wanted to get away from birds and mammals. At the same time, I started hearing stories about the Devil’s Hole pupfish and some of the role that it’s played in conservation controversies in that part of the world. I’ve also had a fascination with species that live on or in islands. So as I started working out there in 2009 and 2010, the species that I wanted to focus on just started adding themselves to the list.

The first one was the the Inyo Mountain slender salamander, and as I talk about in the book, I remember walking up into this heat-blasted canyon, and I knew that the species was supposed to be there because I’d read some of the papers on it, but to actually flip a rock and find one of these creatures that is so dependent on water … I mean, there is a trickle of water there, and that’s where they’re restricted to. They just shouldn’t be there. There are only two desert salamanders in the world, both of them are in the Mojave Desert, and it was just stunning to me. I was overwhelmed, in a sense, by it. And very curious about them, and so I started exploring that species.

So they told one story about the American Southwest and about water, and their sort of survival, if you will, but then there were other kinds of stories out there. Like there was a story of near-extinction in the case of the Owens pupfish and now the Devil’s Hole pupfish. But there is also a story about how a seemingly insignificant species occurring in one very, very small part of the world can have very, very strong effects on development, on water use. I mean, the Devil’s Hole pupfish — this tiny little creature that weighs about one raisin, half of a gram, and is about an inch and a half long — has dramatically affected how water is used in the Southwest. I mean, that’s a very interesting, and to me, compelling, story.