Aleutian cackling geese. California Tiger salamander. Riparian brush rabbit. The valley elderberry longhorn beetle.

Three of the four are — or once were — on the endangered species list.

The California tiger salamander is on the threatened list.

All four have direct ties to the Manteca-Ripon-Lathrop area.

As such they underscore endangered species aren’t found in remote places such as the Thiem’s buckwheat wildfire threatened by a lithium mine in northern Nevada.

The three communities are near the confluence of the Stanislaus and San Joaquin rivers that for centuries provided fertile ground nearby for fauna, birds, and other creatures.

Development since the Gold Rush has placed tremendous strain on various species in the Central Valley from the California grizzly bear that once roamed the valley and went extinct a century ago to tule elk whose herds are now a sliver of what they were in the 1860s.

Getting a glance of the habitat that supports Aleutian crackling geese and harbors the Riparian brush rabbit requires a jaunt outside of city limits.

That said California Tiger salamanders have been found inside Manteca’s city limits while Ripon’s urban area includes habitat for elderberry longhorn beetles.

For years, tens of thousands of motorists daily sped down the 120 Bypass unaware as they traveled over the McKinley Avenue overcrossing they were literally passing through the habitat of an endangered species.

It wasn’t until Manteca started the state mandated environmental site analysis in 2019 for the McKinley Avenue/120 Bypass interchange project that it was discovered California tiger salamanders were within the city limits.

The endangered California tiger salamanders as well as the near threatened western spadefoot toad were found on land Manteca obtained to build the $30.7 million interchange.

The cost of the relocation of the two species added $278,582 to the cost of the project.

Some 250 California Tiger salamanders were captured from the location and relocated to he Clements/Ramirez Preserve north of Stockton.

The work delayed the project for a year.

The California tiger salamander is relatively stocky looking with a broad, rounded snout sporting small eyes with black irises. It is known as a mole salamander making it fairly secretive. Adults can grow to be up to 8 inches.

Their biggest habitat includes most of San Joaquin County as well as the eastern edge of the San Joaquin Valley stretching down toward Fresno. There is also habitat in the Altamont Hills, San Jose and on the eastern side of the Coastal Ranges in addition to the Santa Rosa area.

The western spadefoot road is relatively smooth-skinned. Its eyes are pale gold with vertical pupils. It has a green or grey dorsum often with skin tubercles tipped in orange, and has a whitish color on the ventrum. It has a wedge-shaped black spade on each hind foot. Adult toads are between 1.5 and 3 inches long.

The toad is primarily found in the Central Valley although they have habitat in the San Jose area as well as the desert.

In 2020, Ripon dealt with the need to possibly protect the endangered

valley elderberry longhorn beetle.

The adult male beetle has orange wings accenting a black body.

They are about an inch to an inch and a half long from the front of their head to the rear with a pair of antennas that are almost that long as well.

They are found on or near their host shrub, the elderberry bush that happens to be found next to a dirt path along the Stanislaus River. The City of Ripon wanted to replace that dirt path with asphalt as part of a 1.8-mile bike trail.

Finding signs of the beetle is not an easy task. They typically bore into branches an inch or larger in diameter. It is there they lay eggs that can be in the larva stage for up to two years. The city paid $91,000 for a beetle assessment before they were allowed to proceed.

The Aleutian cackling

Geese success story

Roughly 12 miles due south from downtown Manteca you will come to the northern edge of the 7,300-acre San Joaquin River Wildlife Refuge situated along the San Joaquín River in an area where both the Stanislaus and Tuolumne join California’s second longest river.

The refuge was initially established in 1989 primarily to provide wintering habitat for the Aleutian cackling goose – a federally-listed endangered species at that time.

The Aleutian cackling geese were down to 800 birds 36 years ago.

Today, they number 200,000 with almost all of them wintering at the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge between now and the end of January.

The geese were threatened by invasive foxes in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska that serves as their breeding ground plus disappearing wetlands south of Manteca.

The foxes have been removed from their breeding grounds.

Meanwhile, the refuge is managed with a focus on migratory birds, endangered species, and riparian and wetland habitat restoration.

This where the highly-endangered riparian brush rabbit — that were down to just one being spotted in 1998 at Caswell State Park at the end of Austin Road — is part of a targeted effort to get their numbers back up.

Prior to the flood in 1997 that inundated Caswell State Park as well as 70 square miles between Manteca and Tracy, the state park unit along the Stanislaus River was home to an estimated 200 to 300 brush rabbits. It was the largest known concentration in the wild of the endangered species.

Combined efforts from the Endangered Species Recovery Program at California State University Stanislaus in Turlock, the US Fish and Wildfire Service, California Fish and Wildlife, the non-profit River Partners as well as the US Geological Survey have helped somewhat reverse the fortunes of the brush rabbit that as an adult reach 11 to 14 in length and weigh between 1 and 1.8 pounds.

They now is an estimated 2,000 brush rabbits in the wild.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com