Declining regional toad and frog species gain protected status
Last year, CSERC was the leading conservation group in our region working to support the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in their proposal to list the Yosemite toad and the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog as threatened and endangered species. South of our region, the mountain yellow-legged frog was also the focus of proposed listing.After all the political controversy and misleading claims against protection, on June 30th the three amphibians received federal protected status. The frog species were listed as endangered; the toad was listed as threatened. Federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service are now legally mandated to minimize threats to their survival.
Yet for many years our CSERC staff has been monitoring and documenting habitat conditions where these at-risk species are found on the Stanislaus Forest. We have consistently found damage to the amphibians’ habitat that is caused primarily by livestock grazing, chiseling from hooves, and water quality degradation from livestock waste. Using our extensive field monitoring and data, CSERC is working to influence the upcoming Biological Opinion that will be published by the USFWS, which will dictate how the critical habitat areas for these species can be managed.