The Endangered Species Coalition has just published a Top Ten Report, Water Woes: How dams, diversions, dirty water and droughts put America’s wildlife at risk. In it, they profile 17 threatened or endangered species within 10 important ecosystems in the USA. SAVE THE FROGS! nominated and wrote the section on the Sierra Nevada Yellow-legged Frog, Rana sierrae, and the Mountain Yellow-legged Frog, Rana muscosa, in an effort to bring further awareness to the array of threats these species face in the Sierra Nevada of California. The introduction of invasive species and contaminated water by pesticides and pollution has resulted in both species disappearing from 93% of their historic range. This clearly indicates there is something drastically wrong in their environment. Please read the full report here.
Endangered Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs, photo by Vance Vrendenburg
How to help these frogs: One of the simplest and most impactful things we can do is to stop using pesticides and choose organic foods whenever possible. We need to urge the California Fish and Game Department to stop stocking high mountain lakes with non-native fish where the Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs already exist. Support the conservation efforts of SAVE THE FROGS! We are working to save these species from extinction by bringing awareness to their plight and educating the public about the importance of frogs and their habitats.
Special Thanks: Thanks to Endangered Species Coalition member groups The National Audubon Society, Center for Plant Conservation, Conservation Fisheries, Defenders of Wildlife, Endangered Habitats League, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), Save Our Wild Salmon, Salmon Protection And Watershed Network, SPAWN, WildEarth Guardians, and all of the ESC member groups around the nation that submitted nominations and have worked tirelessly on this report. A special thanks goes out to the great people at the Center for Biological Diversity who nominated the Ozark Hellbender! Thank you all for you great work!
