In addition to organizing an annual regional meeting each year focusing on different themes such as community science, inventory and monitoring, and field identification techniques, the NW PARC steering committee and membership are involved in developing reference materials on amphibians and reptiles tor professional and general audiences; recognizing outstanding individuals in the Northwest region for their contributions to
herptile conservation; and serving on committees to address specific issues such as disease, education and outreach, transportation and mortality, and the designation of priority areas to conserve species and habitats.
An important finding of these analyses is that although there is high species richness in El Monte Valley, the
herptile community is dominated by a relatively small number of common species that, in turn, influences the estimates of diversity.
2004), and in previous years fish and
herptile surveys have also been conducted on these lands (Foster et al.
There was also a total of 477
herptile reports, which included frogs (268), toads (99), slow worms (64) and lizards (31).
Life in Cold Blood goes more thoroughly into the current state of biological understanding of these organisms than most coffee-table or young reader books, yet it reads much easier than most references written for the
herptile hobbyist.
Herptile abundance and diversity in response to seasonal burning on a central Texas ashe juniper-live oak savannah.
Warden staff monitored amphibians annually since 1983 as part of the
herptile management plan, but their reports contain qualitative abundance data only.
We thank the Direccion General de Flora y Fauna Silvestres for scientific collecting permits to study the
herptile fauna of Mexico over the years.