NEWS GAZETTE (Victoria, British Columbia) 13 July 07 Bullfrog blasters hit with funding crunch - More bullfrogs than expected this year due to heavy rains, development pressures, says conservation biologist (Rick Stiebel)
Too many frogs and not enough funding?
Efforts to complete this year’s eradication of American bullfrogs may come up short because of a lack of funding, said conservation biologist Stan Orchard.
Orchard and a team of technicians have been hard at work getting rid of about 1,300 of the pesky critters who prey on ducklings, garter snakes, turtles and a wide range of birds from 16 lakes in the Capital Region.
The eradication efforts are costly. Two-person crews of trained technicians in Zodiacs hunt the bullfrogs at night using electro-shockers that cost up to $12,000 each, said Orchard, pointing out there’s additional equipment and fuel costs to deal with.
Although the City of Langford provided $5,000 in funding, Orchard said he can’t continue without more cash.
Langford has received the greatest benefit, with at least 800 bullfrogs cleared from Florence Lake alone this year, Orchard said.
“Overall, they’re getting a lot of value for their investment.”
Langford, which has contributed to the eradication program for the past three years, has asked Orchard to attend the next parks and recreation committee meeting July 23 to update council on the program’s progress and to discuss whether more funding is needed, said Langford engineering technician Mark Verhagen.
After hitting Florence Lake on April 28, May 7 to 11 and 14, 15, and 19 before moving on to other lakes, Orchard had to return to Florence in June and July because more bullfrogs were showing up.
“That was a bit of a surprise,” Orchard said.
That could be the result of a combination of factors, including the unusually heavy rains this year and the amount of development in the surrounding area that has eliminated natural habitat, Orchard said.
“We got a handle on it pretty quickly,” he said, pointing out about 60 adult males and 200 adult females were collected during the return trips to Florence Lake.
It’s paramount to eliminate the adults, which can grow to the size of a dinner plate and reproduce at an astounding rate, before the breeding season begins in earnest in August, Orchard said, pointing out an adult female can average 20,000 eggs.
Although only a few adults remain in Florence Lake, getting them has been problematic because they are in the worst habitat in an area at the north end of the lake near the mobile home park.
“That’s a nasty piece of real estate because of the proliferation of emergent water lilies that have big leaves and limit visibility,” he said.
“We hope to be able to finish up this week.”
Orchard sought funding from the provincial government last year without success.
This year, the parks and water branches of the Capital Regional District sent letters in support of the program, but Orchard has not received any indication the government will provide money.
A little funding help could be on the way from local high schools, Orchard said.
After Orchard indicated in a story in the News Gazette that the frogs would be used for composting, several high schools, including Belmont, Claremont and Oak Bay, expressed interest in purchasing them for biology labs.
The schools currently purchase leopard frogs for about $13 each.
Those frogs are listed as an endangered species in Canada and parts of the U.S.
Buying bullfrogs from Orchard could save the schools about $1,000 a year.
Examining the contents of the frogs’ stomachs during dissection would also enable the students to get a sense of the broader ecological implications, Orchard noted.
“It’s a lot less abstract than purchasing frogs that you don’t know where they came from,” he added.
Bullfrog blasters hit with funding crunch