Enviromentalists petition to save Yosemite toad, Sierra frog

Scott Sonner

Monday, Feb. 28, 2000 | 1:57 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Conservationists urged the Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday to order Endangered Species Act protection for two amphibians in the Sierra, the mountain yellow-legged frog and the Yosemite toad.

"All throughout the West, if you look at amphibians, you'll find massive declines," said Peter Galvin, chief conservation biologist of the Center for Biological Diversity.

"The Fish and Wildlife Service needs to act now to maintain viable populations of these species as mandated by federal law," Galvin said.

The center filed the petition for protection of the toad along with the Pacific Rivers Council based in Eugene, Ore. The two filed a similar petition for protection of the Sierra Nevada population of the frog earlier this month.

Pesticides, air pollution, livestock grazing near streams and introduction of non-native fish are among the factors contributing to the decline of both species, the petition said.

The Yosemite toad has disappeared from 47 percent of its historic habitat in Yosemite National Park and surrounding national forests, said the petition sent to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.

The Sierra Nevada population of mountain yellow-legged frog has suffered similar declines in its historic habitat from Yosemite north to the Tahoe National Forest at Lake Tahoe.

"The extent of amphibian declines in the Sierra Nevada is disturbing because it shows we've done a poor job of protecting aquatic ecosystems on federal land," said Jeff Miller, a spokesman for the center's California and Pacific office in Berkeley, Calif. The center is based in Tucson, Ariz.

"Human activity has disrupted aquatic ecosystems to the point where the Yosemite toad and the mountain yellow-legged frog are disappearing from supposedly protected areas like national parks," he said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service will have 90 days to consider whether to initiate a formal review of the status of the toad. The 90-day clock on the frog began Feb. 8.

The agency already is considering a proposal to declare the Southern California population of the yellow-legged frog endangered.

"It looks like that one will get listed. They are genetically distinct populations," Miller said.

Discovered in Yosemite National Park in 1916, the Yosemite toad is found along lake shores and ponds at high elevation.

The female has a colored mosaic of dark blotches on an olive-tan background while adult males mature to a bright lemon color.

Many Yosemite toad populations at lower elevations in the Sierra are extinct and the population declines seem to be greatest at the southern end of its range, the petition said.

Only a few individual toads have been found in recent years in the Tioga Pass area, where historically hundreds lived.

Fish stocking is believed to be the biggest threat to the frog because trout like to eat frog tadpoles, the petition said.

Air pollution from the Central Valley also is believed to be taking its toll on both the frog and toad.

"Historically, both occurred extensively throughout the Sierra," Galvin said.