THE PROVINCE (Vancouver, British Columbia) 23 July 06 Frog has Whistler organizers hopping: Alpine ski run home to 'vulnerable' amphibian (Damian Inwood)
A frog the size of a thumbnail has Vancouver 2010 organizers hopping to reroute the $26.2-million Whistler Olympic alpine ski runs.
Rod MacLeod, manager for the Whistler Creekside project, says that tomorrow a hydrologist will help draw up a plan to protect the coastal tailed frog -- blue-listed as a "vulnerable" frog.
The plan may mean rerouting a creek near the finish line.
"Our first plan of attack is to avoid the area where the frogs are or could be," said MacLeod.
"We've had our sport people up here all week. We've been walking the areas, looked at options and tried to figure out what we can do to move the racecourse a little bit so it still works for the athletes and for the show but avoids the areas as much as possible."
Two lengthy stretches of Boyd Creek, where the frogs live, have already been avoided by diverting the ski course, MacLeod said.
A federal environmental assessment report, completed last month, calls for "capture and relocation" of frogs and "hand collection" of tadpoles.
The frogs are on a provincial "blue list" designating them "vulnerable" and "sensitive to human activities."
They are also designated by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada as of "special concern."
Boyd Creek cascades down a four-kilometre valley wall. A 2004 study showed it is home to an "abundant" number of tailed frog tadpoles. The tadpoles take four years to become frogs, which measure 2.5 to 3 centimetres in length and live 15 to 20 years -- making them one of the longest-living frogs in the world.
Only the males have a "tail," which is actually a sex organ used to internally fertilize the eggs of the female.
"They've got us hopping. And there's various jokes going around about frogs' legs barbecues," chuckled MacLeod.
"I was somewhat surprised at their existence, not having heard of them before. I've lived in Whistler for 40 years and didn't have a clue that these things existed."
MacLeod said he could not estimate how much the frogs are costing, but predicted that "it's not going to be substantial. It's not like building a road or luge track where everything has to be done to millimetre specifications."
A 40-metre section of Boyd Creek, near the finish line, requires special attention.
MacLeod said the favoured option is to move the creek.
"We would build a channel that the hydrologist would design," he said. "Our proposal is to move it into a shady area that's got trees around it and do replanting, so that in a year or two it's actually better habitat than it is now."
Failing that, special open-bottomed culverts would be used or logs would be laid across the creek to protect the frogs' habitat.
MacLeod said that later this summer, a 50- to 60-metre section of Boyd Creek, about midway down the women's downhill course, will be dealt with. The area around the finish line will likely be tackled next year.
Biologists will be hired to collect and relocate the frogs and tadpoles.
The men's downhill course is one of the original ski runs cut on Whistler 40 years ago and the creeks have been moved several times, he added.
MacLeod said it will be several weeks before a "tailed frog management plan" will be complete. Any recommendations must be cleared by the federal and provincial environment ministries and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Frog has Whistler organizers hopping