About 1.7 million acres of land across California, including 20,000 acres in San Joaquin County, are candidates for a special designation that would help protect 15 rare plants and animals that live in vernal pools(mud puddles), officials announced Tuesday. Critical habitat is designated to protect threatened or endangered species and could require restrictions on how the land is used. Roughly 76 percent of the land identified Tuesday as possible critical habitat is privately owned. To some (most intelligent) people, vernal pools are useless mud puddles that appear during the wet fall and winter months. To others, they are home to...