High Country News: Giant kangaroo rat, a keystone species of the Carrizo Plain, Restored

In the 1980s, the giant kangaroo rat was listed as a state and federally endangered species. In 2001, the animal’s protected status helped spur the establishment of the national monument on the southern part of the plain. Environmental groups raced to translocate some of the species’ remaining populations to its former habitats, including the Carrizo Plain. There the number of giant kangaroo rats has rebounded from an estimated few thousand in the 1990s to millions today. The Carrizo Plain is isolated in a sea of development. But that may change: The San Andreas Corridor initiative, led by The Nature Conservancy, would connect the Carrizo with other conservation lands to create a 600,000-acre passage for wildlife. Read ON.