PRESS-ENTERPRISE (Riverside, California) 30 April 06 Amphibians Up a Creek - Inland frogs are facing a serious decline (Kenny Klein)
Idyllwild: The U.S. Forest Service wants you -- to join the frog squad.
The new volunteer program is designed to protect the endangered mountain yellow-legged frog, which lives in the North Fork of the San Jacinto River near Idyllwild and a few other places in California.
In the Idyllwild area of the San Bernardino National Forest, enforcement starts May 12.
Volunteers will monitor creek activity along the North Fork, including such areas as the Dark Canyon Campground and Fuller Mill Creek Picnic Area, both a few miles north of Idyllwild and on or near Highway 243. The closures will involve about four miles of the river and some adjoining creeks.
The program ends in October and covers the frog's most active months, said Idyllwild-based Forest Service wildlife biologist Anne Poopatanapong.
"We want to protect the habitat, so the frogs can breed and hopefully recover," said Poopatanapong, who added that the program is designed to educate outdoor enthusiasts who may not know they are there.
The frog's predators in the pristine creeks, which are covered by shade from trees and branch off into shallow pools, are non-native fish that eat the yellow-legged tadpoles, Poopatanapong said. Unknowing humans also may disturb the species, she added. The problem, she says, is the tadpoles take several years to develop, unlike a tree frog that takes about a year.
"The idea is not to prohibit recreational use," Poopatanapong said. "The monitoring is to educate recreationalists about the sensitivity of the areas."
The areas will be off limits to any activities within 10 feet of the creek's edge, Forest Service wildlife technician Heidi Sellers said. Signs will be posted, volunteers will be on site, and citations may be issued to those who don't comply, Sellers said.
Citations for disobeying a forest order range from $50 to $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for an organization, Poopatanapong said. Last year, one citation was issued, Poopatanapong said.
"A lot of people don't even know they are up there," Poopatanapong said. "We are not going to be the frog police. That's not our goal."
Wooden fences and signs protect the endangered frog along a creek at Dark Canyon Camp ground, she said. Signs also will be posted along the other closure areas, she added.
Fewer than 100 yellow-legged frogs are left in the national forest's San Jacinto Ranger District, which stretches from Hemet east to the Coachella Valley and Interstate 10 south to the Anza and Pinyon areas, Poopatanapong said.
At the San Diego Zoo, efforts to breed several frogs failed, with the last one dying this month.
After the 2003 wildfires in the San Bernardino Mountains, government biologists rescued less than a dozen of the tiny frogs from City Creek above Highland and took them to The Los Angeles Zoo but later transferred them to the San Diego Zoo for breeding. The plan was to return the frogs to the Idyllwild wilderness.
Andrew Circo, spokesman for the San Diego Zoo, said the last of those frogs died in April. Officials are not sure what killed the frogs, but more breeding efforts are planned, Circo said.
The frogs dissappeared from San Diego County's Palomar Mountain in the 1970s, Circo said.
The frog, listed as an endangered species in 2002, also lives in the national forest's Front Country Ranger District in the San Bernardino Mountains and the Angeles National Forest in the San Gabriel Mountains. The frog also lives in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Poopatanapong said officials don't know much about the species, such as why they take so long to mature, how they can survive under the snow, or how long they have been in the wilderness. They do know very few are left.
"It's a very mysterious species," Poopatanapong said. "We don't know much about it."
Factors including drought, human contact, logging and people introducing non-native fish into creeks have taken their toll, Poopatanapong said.
The frog population has been declining about 15 years, said Mike Hamilton, director of the James San Jacinto Mountain Reserve near Idyllwild, which is part of the University of California's Natural Reserve System.
"It would not surprise me if there were dozens left," said Hamilton.
No volunteer frog-monitoring program exists in the Front Country Ranger District, Forest Service spokeswoman Pam Bierce said.
In the Angeles National Forest north of Monrovia, volunteers roam the forest to protect wildlife, but there is no specific volunteer effort to protect the endangered frog, spokesman Stanton Florea said.
Florea estimated there are between 60 and 90 frogs left in the wilderness in that forest.
In 2004, an Inland environmental group called the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in U.S. District Court seeking a critical-habitat designation for the mountain yellow-legged frog.
In 2005, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed designating about 8,000 acres of streams in Southern California mountains, including City Creek in the San Bernardino Mountains, the North Fork of the San Jacinto River in Idyllwild and Whitewater River.
The designation has not been finalized and the deadline is in September, said Jane Hendron, spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service.
One recent day, Candy Johnson sat on a rock next to Fuller Mill Creek, enjoying the shady pools, when Poopatanapong arrived and explained the program.
"I did not even know the frogs were endangered or lived here, but now I'll be a little more careful," said Johnson, a 38-year-old Perris resident. "I like frogs ... who doesn't?"
Others, like 34-year-old Banning resident Jackie Gurien, found the news about the closures upsetting at first.
"I know those frogs are there, and when I eat my lunch by the creek or hike up a creek, I'm very careful," Gurien said. "But if the frogs are in that much trouble, I understand, because I want them to be around for my grandchildren to enjoy."
FROG SQUAD
WHAT: The U.S. Forest Service Wildlife Department seeks volunteers to help monitor the endangered mountain yellow-legged frog.
WHERE: Creeks in the Dark Canyon Campground, along the North Fork of the San Jacinto River and at Fuller Mill Creek in the Idyllwild area.
DETAILS: Weekend availability preferred. Uniforms, radios and training provided.
INFORMATION: Heidi Sellers or Anne Poopatanapong, (951) 382-2945.
Inland frogs are facing a serious decline