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MO Press: Roads hurt salamanders

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<u>COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE</u> (Missouri) 06 November 06 Roads hurt salamanders - Forest research suggests harm to environment. (Terry Ganey)
Forest logging roads greatly reduces the populations of amphibians far beyond the edges of the roads and for a long time, according to a study conducted by Ray Semlitsch, a biologist at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Semlitsch said the study could influence the development of roads used to extract resources from natural areas.
"This is going to have some important implications for national forests and lands that are used for protection of biodiversity," Semlitsch said. "We are setting aside lands to protect wildlife, and we are creating a network of roads in those natural areas for management of different kinds.
"I know roads are necessary, but the point is that roads have an impact," Semlitsch added. "This is going to be pretty important about how extensive an impact they might have for salamanders and other wildlife."
Semlitsch supervised a study that monitored the population of woodland salamanders in the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina’s portion of the southern Appalachian Mountains. The team found that salamander abundance was reduced for about 35 meters on both sides of relatively narrow, low-use roads. Populations were down even near roads abandoned long ago.
Salamanders, an important component of biodiversity, thrive on the forests’ cool, moist floors. A measurement of road networks using the 35-meter standard found that 28 percent of the entire forest district would be unsuitable for salamanders, the study said.
Semlitsch suspects that roads cut through forests allow sunlight, wind and higher temperatures to produce dry conditions that strip moisture from the soil and leaf litter that salamanders enjoy.
Eric Sanderson, a Wildlife Conservation Society scientist, has studied how roads and urban areas influence land use around the world.
"Our infrastructure is having a dramatic impact on wildlife and diminishing wild places all over the world," Sanderson said. "Even though people use roads all the time, we don’t appreciate how many roads are out there.
"Although they are really important to the way people get around, they have negative influences for nature, and we need to keep those in mind as we are building new roads," Sanderson said.
Semlitsch said that a forest "footprint" remains from roads that were developed 80 years ago. Since trees are harvested every 80 to 100 years, Semlitsch said the effects over time will reduce forests to smaller pieces of suitable habitat.
The study, to be published in a forthcoming issue of Conservation Biology, could have national implications. The Clinton administration implemented the "roadless rule" prohibiting new or temporary roads in National Forest Service lands.
The Bush administration amended the rule to allow states to petition the forest service to change roadless management. The change is hung up in court. Republicans in Congress have said the "roadless rule" blocks access to oil and natural gas supplies on federal lands.
Semlitsch said he hoped his study would persuade the forest service and other agencies "to think carefully about where they want to put more roads in and increase the fragmentation of the forest.
"Up until now, I think they thought it’s a small impact and is short-term," Semlitsch said. "This shows just the opposite."

http://www.showmenews.com/2006/Nov/20061106News006.asp
 
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