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Wine company tries cooperation over regulation: Jackson family builds ponds for tiger salamander

By Sam Womack/Staff Writer

They’re not furry or cuddly and they don’t live very interesting lives. But the California tiger salamander made it onto the endangered species list and has since then disrupted many development projects.

However, one area property owner decided to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to learn more about the elusive amphibian in the hopes that further study would help with future projects on the property.

Jackson Family Wines, known formerly as Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates, created two new ponds on its 5,400-acre property in Los Alamos that may lure the spotted creature out for breeding purposes.

Jackson Family Wines signed an agreement with Fish and Wildlife to have their property excluded from the agency’s critical habitat designation in exchange for developing conservation measures to protect the salamander.

“It’s a very cooperative relationship,” said Lee Anne Edwards, the Jackson vice president of real estate.

She added that the company is a “really big land steward” in its operations.

There were already four ponds on Jackson’s Los Robles Ranch before the most recent two were built to maximize the salamander’s use of the prime habitat.

“No one’s actually seen any salamanders on the property,” said Jim Youngson of Terrain Consulting. “But over the past five or 10 years approximately 100 larvae have been seen” in one of the most productive ponds on the ranch.

The newly constructed holes in the ground, designed to fill with rain water and groundwater in the winter and spring, are positioned less than 2,200 feet from another breeding pond and at least 600 feet away from Highway 101.

The distances are thought to be as far as the amphibian will travel for breeding and after hatching. However, the ponds are completely experimental, as very little is known about the salamander’s habits, Edwards said.

California tiger salamanders are hatched in seasonal ponds, where they mature for eight to 12 weeks before leaving the water and taking up residence in another animal’s burrow until the need to breed brings them back to the pond, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

The black-colored critter with yellow or white spots or stripes was listed on the federal endangered species list in 2000, and 11,000 acres were listed as critical habitat in 2004.

One of Jackson’s new ponds is approximately 100 feet by 150 feet and 1 to 3 feet deep. The walls slope gently to give the mature salamanders an easier climb to a stolen burrow.

The second pond is 75 feet by 100 feet with a depth of 2 to 4 feet, and the bottom is lined with clay to help maintain the water level. It has steeper slopes and is surrounded by dirt mounds to help contain the predicted levels of natural water drainage.

About $100,000 has been spent on construction of the two new ponds, maintenance of the existing breeding ponds and continuing monitoring by FWS-approved consultants, according to Youngson.

The tree-lined property with rolling hills has been leased for cattle grazing and although the Jackson family would like to do something with the land, there are no plans in the pipeline, Edwards said.

The property, west of Highway 101, was purchased in 1998 for a vineyard, but once the amphibian was listed as an endangered species, the plan was stalled.

Now, the dry holes represent cooperation rather than regulation and Edwards said that perhaps with more knowledge of the salamander will come more efficient mitigation measures for all developers within the designated critical habitat areas.

SALAMANDER FACTS

— California tiger salamanders spend the majority of their lives in holes borrowed from squirrels or gophers in grassland habitats.

— The winter rainy season is the only time they'll leave the burrows and head to the breeding ponds.

— They can lay from 400 to 1,300 eggs per breeding season.

— Salamander larvae hang out in the ponds for 8 to 12 weeks, then they leave to go find their own borrowed burrows.

— Adult males can reach 8.2 inches in length, while females may reach 6.8 inches in length.

— They can live from seven to 10 years.

swomack@syvnews.com