Help Save California’s Endangered Plants and Animals

Remember California's Endangered Species at Tax Time

Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to the following copyrighted material. For permission to reprint or excerpt it and/or link it to another website, contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com

Now that the tax season is here SurfWriter Girls’ contact in Sacramento at the Department of Fish and Game reminded us that it’s possible to make a voluntary contribution on your California income tax return to help the environment.

Two funds, in particular, that the DFG recommends are the: Rare and Endangered Species Preservation Program, Line 403, and California Sea Otter Fund, Line 410.

These are both listed in the “Voluntary Contributions” section of your California State Tax Form 540. You can donate as little as one dollar or much more. The average contribution is $12. And your donation is tax deductible. For more information go to the DFG’s website: www.dfg.ca.gov/taxcheck.

SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel learned that California supports more than 5,000 native plants and more than 1,000 native animals. At least one-third of the plants and two-thirds of the animals are “endemic species” – species that occur nowhere else in the world.

But, many of these have been pushed to the brink of extinction and more than 300 are designated by the state as “rare, threatened or endangered.” Some of the reasons for this include loss of habitat, water management conflicts, invasive species, poaching, over-fishing, hunting, and climate change.

These animals and plants are part of our heritage and need our support.

By donating whatever you can to the Rare and Endangered Species Preservation Program you can help ensure that critical habitat for California's endangered species is conserved and that these plants and animals are protected for future generations.

The California Sea Otter Fund provides crucial funding to help scientists learn about and trace the causes of sea otter mortality, examine the factors limiting population growth and prevent pollution of California's marine ecosystem. This fund is especially critical now because, given today’s difficult economy, support for sea otter conservation and research has decreased or is no longer available.

At one time close to 20,000 sea otters could be found between California’s northern border and San Diego. But hunting and environmental changes practically wiped them out, leaving only a few otters in the Central Coast. In 1977 sea otters became a protected group under the Endangered Species Act and since then the California population rose to almost 3,000.

Last October a group of birdwatchers saw an otter in San Diego Bay. And in December some boaters on a whale-watching trip in Laguna Beach spotted a sea otter near the kelp beds.

SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti hope that rare sightings like these soon will be commonplace. Through our efforts we can make a difference.

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