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In late 2016, SAVE THE FROGS! and the Center for Biological Diversity submitted a petition to the California Fish & Game Commission (FGC) calling on the state to list American Bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana; Lithobates catesbeianus) as a prohibited species. Our petition is being considered at the FGC’s April 26, 2017 meeting in Van Nuys, CA (please attend and speak if you are able, at Airtel Plaza Hotel, 7277 Valjean Ave, Van Nuys, CA).
The California Department of Fish & Wildlife has published documents detailing the extensive harms caused by non-native bullfrogs, yet each year they issue permits for the importation of over 2,000,000 live bullfrogs into the state. Many of these bullfrogs escape or are purposely set free and then establish populations. The bullfrogs eat native amphibians, compete with them for breeding habitat and food, and spread diseases such as chytridiomycosis.
On April 21st, 2017, SAVE THE FROGS! Founder Dr. Kerry Kriger submitted this official comment to the FGC on behalf of SAVE THE FROGS! and our supporters, urging the FGC to list American Bullfrogs as a prohibited species in the state of California.
You can email the California Fish and Game Commission at: fgc@fgc.ca.gov
“Live importation of American Bullfrogs presents a direct risk to California’s wildlife…definitely it’s a pathway for wildlife diseases.”
— Stafford Lehr, California Department of Fish & Wildlife, Branch Chief of Inland and Anadromous Fisheries, February 12th, 2015
“This animal (the American Bullfrog) is a threat to California’s native species. Our own report now demonstrates that’s true.”
— California Fish & Game Commissioner Richard Rogers, February 12th, 2015
Learn more about bullfrogs at: www.savethefrogs.com/bullfrogs
Dear Chair and Members of the Commission:
Endangered Habitats League (EHL) most strongly supports this petition. For your reference, EHL is Southern California’s only regional conservation group and a long-standing participants in habitat plans in San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Orange Counties.
As we review management plans and biological reports, we are over and over again struck by the immense harm to natural systems and species wrought by the introduced American bullfrog. This invasive species has had widespread and devastating effects on an ecosystem unadapted to it. Eradication programs are expensive and only a preventive approach makes sense. It is long past time to add the bullfrog to the restricted species list and to contain the damage and the financial cost of the American bullfrog.
Thank you for considering our views.
Yours truly,
Dan Silver, Executive Director
Endangered Habitats League
April 22, 2017
RE: Petition #2016-030 to add American bullfrog to list of restricted species (Item 17(A)I, April 26, 2017)
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“Dear Dr. Kriger,
As a result of rivers flooding in the winter, never-before-seen bullfrogs made their way to the creek on Old Sonoma Road in south Napa, next to the Ridgeview School. Since then, ALL the tree frogs and red-legged frogs in that area have DISAPPEARED. I am talking about hundreds of tree frogs who used to populate the area, as well as families of red-legged frogs. Twenty years ago, the town of south Napa was full of these frogs. Now, nothing.
Unless the county of Napa Valley and other northern California towns are prepared for the extinction of all tree frogs and red-legged frogs, the importation of bull frogs must cease immediately. Had this been dealt with back in the 1990s when it began in earnest, there would never have been such a complete wipe-out of these native frogs. I love bullfrogs in their native habitat. However, importing these bullfrogs affects the balance of nature, in favor of the bullfrogs.
Cordially,
Louise Salant”