Hang in there, tiger

Folks interested in the potential of an endangered-species listing for the California tiger salamander have a little more than a month to submit public comment.

The state Department of Fish and Game is seeking data on a proposal to add the creatures to the list of state-protected species. DFG’s request is in response to a petition submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity, along with a bevy of other conservation organizations.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reconsidering protecting the 74,000 acres of critical habitat found in Sonoma County that the Bush administration eviscerated back in 2005. The decision is in response to a CBD lawsuit, one of several legal battles the center is waging in 28 states to overturn questionable decisions made during the Bush administration.

“The Bush administration is gone, but cleaning up the mess they made in the endangered-species program will take years,” Noah Greenwald, CBD biodiversity program director, said in a recent statement.