The Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to list the Foothill Yellow-Legged Frog as endangered and threatened. This frog is located in California and Oregon. BRC is concerned with the potential listing because agencies have already restricted OSV and motorized use because of the yellow-legged frog. BRC is currently litigating restricted OSV use in the Stanislaus Forest partially because snowmobile areas are located in Yellow-Legged Frog habitat. If snowmobiles are a threat to the yellow-legged frog while it is hibernating deep below the snow, ice, water, and mud, then there is no limit to what restrictions can be put in place by a misguided ESA listing. We do not want to see more arbitrary restrictions because of this decision. One of the identified threats of the frog is loss of habitat. We know that the primary source of lost habitat is wildfire caused by mismanaged public lands. Land agencies need to first properly manage lands in order to provide healthy habitats. It is a cruel irony that the strict restrictions that come from Endangered Species Act listings are what prevent the active managment projects that would mitigate the complete destruction of habitats by catastrophic wildfires.
We invite you to add your voice to tell Fish and Wildlife Service that we need active management to protect wildlife instead of blind restrictions. You can submit your comment by March 30th using our action alert tool below.
You can read the listing on the federal register here.
Add you voice to ours using the tool below by clicking “Take Action”.