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Experts agree: Mark Twain’s favorite amphibian, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” is none other than the California red-legged frog. Sadly, more than a century after Twain published his story, the frog leapt out of literature and onto the federal endangered species list. Once so common it was a staple cuisine, this frog originally declined due to overharvesting and subsequent introduction of predacious bullfrogs, which still pose a problem. Now it also falls prey to more modern threats — pesticide use and loss of its wetlands habitat to urbanization and agriculture.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Threatened
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1996
CRITICAL HABITAT: 450,288 acres in California designated in 2006
RECOVERY PLAN: 2002
RANGE: California’s Sonoma and Butte counties in the north to Riverside County in the south, mostly in the western counties
THREATS: Habitat loss to urban development, agriculture, logging and wetland draining, impacts of dams and water diversions, competition and predation by introduced species, pesticides, cattle grazing, and global warming
POPULATION TREND: Population has declined by at least 90 percent, and the frog is gone from 70 percent of its former range — only four areas now harbor more than 350 adult red-legged frogs.
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SAVING THE CALIFORNIA RED-LEGGED FROG
California has lost 90 percent of its riparian areas and wetlands — prime red-legged frog habitats — and the red-legged frog has lost 90 percent of its historic population. Coincidence? The Center thinks not, and we’ve been working on multiple fronts to safeguard California’s largest native frog and its habitat. Our efforts have resulted in critical habitat designation for the frog, and we’ve also opposed numerous urban-sprawl development projects in the San Francisco Bay Area to ensure that red-legged frogs aren’t squeezed out by golf courses and luxury condos.
Not only has the habitat of the red-legged frog dwindled in size; it’s also been seriously contaminated by pesticides — to which the frog, with its permeable amphibian skin, is especially vulnerable. Because the Environmental Protection Agency has a history of approving pesticide use harmful to endangered species, the Center filed a lawsuit forcing the agency to consult with endangered species experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure that chemicals they register won’t harm the red-legged frog. In 2006, the Center reached a settlement agreement that prohibits the use of 66 toxic pesticides in and adjacent to core California red-legged frog habitats until formal consultations with the Service have been completed. We continue to monitor and oppose harmful chemical pesticide use in California through our Pesticides Reduction Campaign.
In 2001, the Center submitted a comprehensive, scientifically based conservation plan for the four southern California national forests that would protect red-legged frogs. The Center is challenging the Forest Service’s management plans for these forests, which would allow more environmental damage and harm red-legged frog habitat.
Currently, the frog has far from enough federally protected habitat to ensure its recovery. Thanks to Center litigation, the Service designated more than 4.1 million acres of critical habitat in 2001, but a building-industry lawsuit caused the agency to withdraw this decision. After Center intervention brought about a settlement re-designating just 199,000 acres and a subsequent proposal to re-designate the original 4.1 million acres, the Service ended up protecting only 450,288 acres of habitat for the frog. This decision, the result of political corruption occurring under former Interior Department official Julie MacDonald, was based on a biased economic analysis and ignored scientific evidence of the species’ habitat needs.
In August 2007, the Center submitted a notice of intent to sue over this issue — as well as illegal decisions robbing 54 other imperiled species of adequate protections. Three months later, the Service announced the reversal of six corruption-tainted determinations, including the one that so dramatically slashed the California red-legged frog’s critical habitat. In December 2007, we sued to ensure that the frog’s new critical habitat designation is adequate, as well as to challenge designations for 12 other species.
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Contact: Jeff Miller
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