[All] Fwd: Save the salamanders (appeal for letter support)

[Norah & Richard]

Hi All,
this is being organized by the local Melanie Sohm , a young amphibian 
expert who gave us the details and support we needed to push back on 
Guelph City Hall development plans to ignore the salamanders in our area.

I thought I would pass this on. They are trying to close down a road in 
Burlington for spring migration. If anyone would like to write them a 
letter, she has included a sample letter below that they have sent out. 
Please write mayorjackson at burlington.ca 
<mailto:mayorjackson at burlington.ca> especially if you have a Burlington 
address or know anyone who lives in that city!!

Thanks for any help you can provide.   Norah**


Dear City Council,

I would like to thank you for considering the closure of King Rd.. This 
is very important as amphibians are currently experiencing increased 
attention due to their recent declines. According to Gord Miller, the 
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, "These declines and extinctions 
appear to represent a unique amphibian crisis ... the worst we have ever 
faced". Jefferson salamanders require a large amount of undisturbed 
terrestrial habitat surrounding wetlands for nesting, hibernation, 
foraging and migration. They spend approximately 340 days in terrestrial 
habitats; however, they require very distinct temporary wetlands during 
their breeding season in early spring. They also demonstrate strong pond 
fidelity as a result of the increasingly limited number of suitable 
breeding sites.

It is important to preserve these species as their extent and 
populations are already limited throughout Ontario. If their populations 
continue to decline and experience local extinctions, they could pass an 
ecological threshold which would lead to their extirpation from Ontario. 
For this reason it is essential that King Rd. be closed to allow these 
salamanders as well as other amphibian species to migrate safely to 
their breeding sites. The city of Guelph has taken similar measures to 
protect amphibian biodiversity in critical migration areas: 
http://news.guelphmercury.com/article/538775. I hope that the city of 
Burlington can join their initiatives by acting as responsible stewards 
of amphibian biodiversity.

Thank you for your concern and consideration,

Sincerely,

References:

Miller, Gord. 2009. Building resilience: Annual report 2008-2009. 
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. Retrieve from: 
http://www.eco.on.ca/eng/uploads/eng_pdfs/2009/ar2008.pdf

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20100218/dd2561e7/attachment.html>