A unit of Lasting Forests Sustained forests; sustained profits evolving since March 30, 1999

1. The objectives must be stated. They may relate strongly to:
   1. maximizing richness
   2. maximizing abundance of each taxon
   3. maximizing evenness (abundance among taxa)
   4. maximizing sightings of salamanders
   5. maximizing a sighting score, related to the desirability of a person seeing a salamander life group each having a score
   6. maximizing suitable space for the next 50 years
   7. maximizing salamander biomass of potential major prey species

   Without an objective (or set of them, as shown here), no adaptive management can be implemented.

2. Salamander species are numerous. Richness can be an objective. A sport or club for people interested can be created with memebrs scoring the numbers seen for personal pride or minor competition. There are likely to be found, for example, 13 species on the Havens Wildlife Management Area near Salem, Virginia. These are:
   • Appalachian seal salamander (Desmognathus monticloa)
   • Four-toed salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum)
   • Jefferson salamander (Ambystoma jeffersonianum)
   • Jordan's salamander (Plethodon jordani)
   • Longtail salamander (Eurycea longicauda)
   • Marbled salamander (Ambystoma opacum)
   • Northern dusky salamander (Desmognathus fuscus)
   • Northern two-lined salamander (Eurycea cirregera*)
   • Ravine salamander (Plethodon richmondi)
   • Redback salamander (Plethodon cinereus)
   • Slimy salamander (Plethodon glutinosus*)
   • Spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum)
   • Wehrle's salamander (Plethodon wehrlei) *species recently re-evaluated and split.
3. Surveys of species present are needed. The nominal resource needs to be established as
   1. Probable (based on range maps)
   2. Highly probable (based on old publications)
   3. Observed (based on field observation)
   4. Verified (confirmed identification and present within 5 years)
4. Surveys are different and not easily replicated (area, observer, weather, timing, season, all with product-rule probability). Different survey techniques may be biased towards certain species. Some species have very seasonally constrained above-ground activity (e.g., Ambystoma maculatum). Use night searches, with lights, by experts, over an extended period in the warm season. Include searches in known likely spots. Randomization is silly. Record location, date, and animals found per unit of search time.
5. Develop standard survey areas. Examples:
   1. Cement blocks in streams
   2. Standardize boards or timbers on forest litter along a trail
   3. Marked rocks that are overturned and quickly replaced
   4. Marked quadrats in ponds or streams allowing counts of aquatic forms per square meter
   5. Dip-net sweeps of ponds or streams
   6. Standard length sweeps (turning over stones, etc. above a seine across a stream)
   7. Electro-shocking a standard reach
   8. Highway (dark color, no curbs, little traffic) searches at night. Wear safety color and reflector clothing!
   9. Standard time, area, and or reach searches by a group of 4-6 children, ages 8-12.
6. Identification aids are needed. Produce local ones.
7. Color photos may be distributed for free with advertising or educational messages (or sold) or used to attract gifts for research and organizational support.
8. Multiple CD-ROM images can be useful in speeding quality identification.
9. Foot trails can be the means to move people through habitats to areas where salamanders are abundant.
10. Conduct night walks to allow visitor-users to find salamanders. Salamanders are generally nocturnal.
11. Salamander watching is seasonal. Seasonal occurrence (phenology) needs to be studied so first days, peak, and end periods can be advertised for potential users.
12. Salamander richness and abundance need to be studied over time. Some reports suggest amphibians (around the world) are disappearing from a wide variety of habitats.
13. Salamanders of many species live in caves, ponds, streams, and terrestrial moist environments. These are the major named faunal spaces. Rich areas will have all of these present. Each requires different management. [Life group management is needed; see 15 below.]
14. Species-specific management is desired and possible. Limited time and funds will prevent an individual from managing for many different species (they will group them), but teams of people with computer aids can manage very precisely for many individual species. [Do not be confused: multi-species, guild, or key species approaches are not the same as the simultaneous, species-specific management of many species on the same management area or ownership.]
15. Life group management is essential in salamander resource system management. The conspicuous life groups are:
    • eggs
    • aquatic (or other) larvae
    • eft (land larvae)
    • newt-pre-adults*
    • adults

    The (species x life group) management needs create an impressive challenge.

    The word "newt" applies only to members of the family Salamandridae which has greater diversity in Europe and Asia and some in western North America than in this region.

    EGGS

16. Since some amphibians and their eggs have an aquatic stage, reductions seem correlated with acid rain, pesticides, pollutants, and ground water losses. They have, however, a success record of over 250 million years. Perhaps their loss may suggest that extreme events or conditions have occurred recently (e.g., ultra-violet light increase due to depletion of the ozone layer). Fish stocking has claimed some populations. Learn to recognize mortality in egg masses from a local expert as soon as possible in order to assess the quality of breeding habitat.
17. Many salamander adults return to water to lay eggs. The egg environment differs by species. Without a species-specific knowledge or objective, create egg-laying places such as
    1. aquatic vegetation in a pond
    2. small shallow ponds
    3. large dishes (flowerpot base) with sand as a base and a cover
    4. large dishes with decomposed leaves in water
    5. spring boxes
    6. spring culverts
    7. spring seeps with logs
    8. waterhole edges
18. There are two gross types of egg laying, primitive (large numbers laid in water) and advanced (small clusters attached by a pedicel to some support). Guarding of eggs by adult may occur in both types.

    The egg-laying surfaces differ:

    lower surfaces of rocks and wood in running water
        Eurycea bislineata
        Gyrinophilus porphyriticus
        Gyrinophilus danielsi
        Pseudotriton ruber
        Necturus maculosus
    calm water below the surface
        Ambystoma
    under mud or rotted leaves
        Cryptobranchus allenganiensis
        Pseudotriton montonus
    leaves of aquatic plants
        Triturus stereochilus

    Female newts (of some species) in ponds lay eggs singly and wrap them in the leaves of aquatic plants. The red-spotted newt does this. (Other native salamanders probably do not do this.)

    excavation under a stone or log on land with a downside stream entrance
        Necturus maculosus (alternative previously reported)
    moist land
        Ambystoma opacum
    moss on rocks near seepage
        Desmognathus aeneus
    rotten log cavities
        Plethodons
    tree cavities (high) - more commonly in rock crevices
        Aneides lugubris
    caves

    LARVAE

19. Larvae hunt in shallow ponds and lakes. Newts rarely inhabit running water. Maximize sunlight and minimize silt.
20. Aquatic newts feed on aquatic insects, small crustaceans, snails, leeches, and zooplankton. Large newts eat tadpoles, crayfish, and small fish.
21. The juveniles, of those in an aquatic larval stage, remain in the pond until mid-summer. Metamorphosis occurs in late summer and fall.
22. Salamanders eat more insects than birds (a peculiar comment from the literature). Their ecological role is suggested in the following quoted abstract:

    Energy flow through salamander populations in the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem is about 11,000 kcal/ha/yr (=46,000 kJ/ha/yr). This is 0.02% of the net primary productivity, and is 20% of the energy flow through bird and mammal populations. Salamanders are efficient (60%) at converting ingested energy into new tissue and produce more new tissue annually than do bird populations.

    Salamanders are insignificant agents as "sinks" for nutrients or as agents for nutrient cycling in the ecosystem. Sodium is the possible exception, as an amount equivalent to greater than 8% of the Na in annual litter fall passes through salamander populations; all other nutrients (Ca, Mg, K, P, N, S, and Zn) are less than 1%.

    Calcium content of salamanders is greater that of most of their invertebrate prey. There is some evidence that invertebrates rich in Ca content, such as snails and mites, are necessary components of the diet of salamanders. Salamander tissue is higher in protein content than that of birds and mammals and represents a source of high-quality energy for potential predators.

    Salamanders have restricted home ranges and are not significant agents in the movement of nutrients into or out of the system.
        (Burton and Likens. 1975. ECOLOGY 56: 1068-1080.)

    ADULTS
23. Adults eat flies, Diptera; beetles, Coleoptera; ants, Hymenoptera; millipedes, Diploda; springtails, Collembola; and insect larvae, earthworms, spiders, and other salamanders.
24. Plethodon salamanders, adults and larvae, are terrestrial. They burrow in the ground during cold or dry weather.
25. The mole salamander (Ambystoma talpoideum) which does not occur regularly in Virginia lays eggs on land in winter in areas that will be flooded during spring rains.
26. Crayfish can be managed to provide burrows -- which are used by Desmognathus fuscus.
27. A wooden box filled with mixed deciduous leaves placed in the forest floor will provide good habitat, constantly moist.
28. Mulch -- sawdust piles -- and dead log sites can be created. Depression in the forest filled with leaves or sawdust is an excellent habitat.
29. Conifer and lichen litter are very poor habitats. (There are 1-2 species exceptions however.)
30. Clear-cut areas are poor (temperature and moisture).
31. Predators may need to be removed or larvae and plants protected (e.g., by wire net) from them. These include bullfrog, American toad, snapping turtle, painted turtle, garter snake, grass snake, raccoon, stickleback, and water shrew.
32. A practical R and D project is needed such as one with the following objectives:

    Title : A Unified Expert- and Geographic-Information System for Mountainous Virginia Salamanders.

    Objectives:

    1. To create an expert system that:

    1. identifies salamanders in mountainous areas of Virginia
    2. describes the probable location and/or habitats of species
    3. provides advice for managing each species
    2. To produce computer maps of select species distributions for a State Wildlife Management Area
33. Keep records.
34. Quantify increases in observers, hours spent, user-perceived quality of hours experienced.
35. Promote local sales of books and related equipment.
36. Try to determine maximum populations as an upper standard and to prevent over-investment of time and money.
37. Encourage timber harvest (as needed) adjacent to areas to which animals may move. (assuming [not tested] that some will do so; dispersal is probably limited; provide the opportunity.)
38. Encourage timber harvest practices which reduce erosion/siltation.
39. In areas to be logged or otherwise "developed", exploit the population fully for research on food habits, display specimens, laboratory studies. Use removal rate studies in such areas to estimate maximum populations (see 36 above). Consider collecting and moving individuals.
40. Seek listing of threatened species.
41. Seek area preservation (with managerial options for the long run) for threatened species.
42. Salamanders are a large component of the faunal biomass of forested area and need to be considered for management as a major food supply, perhaps limiting, for other fauna.
43. Manage spring seeps, creating spring boxes and "guzzlers" to assure moisture well distributed over an area.
44. Because suitable sites are small, it is likely that a multi-map-layer GIS can be useful in finding sites and creating sites having all of the factors in which the animals are found.
45. Permanent pools usually have fish which are major predators on salamander eggs and larvae. Vernal pools are much more important for successful Ambystoma breeding. Increasing pools of intermittent streams will improve conditions for salamanders. Stair-stepped streams with protected, vegetated banks can be readily created, and should be (for many reasons).
46. Continued resistance to regional broad-spectrum, long-lasting pesticide applications, global warming, acid rain deposition, and ozone release all are needed.
47. Prevent and rapidly control forest fires.
48. Increase nutritional organic matter by harvesting timber when leaves are on the trees and leaving tops.
49. Combine slash and brush in tepee-like piles with woody debris in contact with the forest floor. Good conditions, but over the long-run is the difficult-to-get condition.
50. Display salamanders in terrariums for a few hours, then return them to collection sites. Everyone need not destroy a log to find a species for his or her life list. Just knowing it was recently collected nearby provides a nearly natural sighting record.
51. Restrict traffic, even fishing, or other disturbance during short critical periods. Add limestone to low pH areas; place limestone boulders in stream segments.
52. Protect riparian vegetation.
53. Tally species richness as part of a biodiversity enhancement strategy (for whatever public relations benefits it may bring).

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.