Good news for two imperiled species found only in Southern California: Wildlife groups and local water agencies have reached an agreement to protect the habitats of the San Bernardino kangaroo rat and Santa Ana sucker fish, two formerly widespread local species whose habitats were largely destroyed due to human development, construction, and flood management systems.
The approach will be experimental, according to Dan Silver of the Endangered Habitats League, one of the parties in the lawsuit that led to this week’s agreement. It wouldn’t involve reverting the species’ habitat to a completely natural state – that would require the removal of the Seven Oaks Dam in Highland, which is used to mitigate floods for communities farther down the Santa Ana River like San Bernardino. Rather, it would create a new management system to keep the species alive.
