The Jemez Mountain salamander, now listed as an endangered species. Courtesy/PEEC

PEEC News:

Have you heard about the Jemez Mountain salamander recently being placed on the endangered species list?

They are not the only ones facing severe challenges. Amphibians around the world are experiencing declines, extirpations, and extinctions. In a free talk at PEEC at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, fish and wildlife biologist Michelle Christman will discuss the challenges faced by amphibians around the world and in our own backyard. The program is free to attend. No advance registration is required to attend.

In her presentation, Michelle Christman will briefly cover general amphibian biology, threats amphibians face, general amphibian declines, and scale it down to New Mexico and the Jemez Mountains. The biology of the Jemez Mountains salamander, and some of the factors that supported a recent decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list this salamander as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, as amended, will also be discussed.

Michelle Christman is a Fish and Wildlife Biologist with the New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in Albuquerque. Christman has worked with amphibian and reptile conservation in New Mexico since 2000, and in 2008, she became the species lead for several listed and sensitive species of amphibians and reptiles for FWS. She actively participates in the conservation, recovery, and management of amphibians and reptiles for work as well as in her personal life.

Christman received her MS in biology in 2005 from Utah State University, where her thesis focused on post-fire effects to the Jemez Mountains salamander, and she met her herpetologist husband over a salamander. Together they raise leopard frogs and a 9-year old girl.

For more information, visit http://www.pajaritoeec.org/takewing/events.php, email Programs@PajaritoEEC.org or call 505.662.0460.