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Background and Q&A's |
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April 13, 2006 |
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Background: The belly and hind legs of adult frogs are often red or salmon pink; the back is characterized by small black flecks and larger dark blotches on a background of brown, gray, olive or reddish-brown. California red-legged frogs have been found from sea level to about 5,000 feet in California and Baja California, Mexico, and may be found in a variety of habitats. The frogs breed in aquatic habitats such as streams, ponds, marshes and stock ponds. During wet weather, frogs may move through upland habitats. Frogs spend considerable time resting and feeding in riparian habitat. They eat mostly invertebrates, and they feed at night. California red-legged frogs are relatively prolific breeders, usually laying egg masses during or shortly following heavy rainfall in late winter or early spring. The species breeds in aquatic habitats such as streams, ponds, marshes and stock ponds. Females can lay between 2,000 and 5,000 eggs in a single mass. The eggs are attached to bulrushes or cattails. It takes six to 14 days for the eggs to hatch and approximately three and a half to seven months for the tadpoles to develop into frogs. The highest rates of mortality for this species occur during the tadpole stage: less than 1 percent of eggs hatched reach adulthood. The young frogs hunt day and night. This constant activity makes them visible, and, consequently, more vulnerable to predators. Pacific tree frogs and California mice make up the majority of this species' diet, with insects composing the rest. Historically, the California red-legged frog was found in 46 counties. The range extended coastally from the vicinity of Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, and inland from the vicinity of Redding, Shasta County, south to northwestern Baja California, Mexico. The frog has sustained a 70 percent reduction in its geographic range in California as a result of habitat loss and alteration, overexploitation, and introduction of exotic predators. Today, only 26 counties support known populations. The California red-legged frog is found primarily in coastal drainages of central California. Monterey, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties support the greatest amount of currently occupied habitat. Only four areas within the entire historic range of this species may currently harbor more than 350 adults. The California red-legged frog was listed as a threatened species under Federal law in 1996. Q. What is critical habitat? A. Critical habitat is a term in the ESA. It identifies geographic areas that contain features essential for the conservation of a threatened or endangered species and may require special management considerations or protection. Q. Does critical habitat create preserves or provide species with more protection? A. No. A critical habitat designation does not affect land ownership or establish a refuge, wilderness, reserve, preserve or other conservation area. It does not allow government or public access to private lands and will not result in closure of the area to all access or use. However, listed species, including the California red-legged frog, and their habitats are protected by the Endangered Species Act regardless of whether they are in an area designated as critical habitat or not. Q. Why is the Service designating critical habitat now? A. The Service designated critical habitat for the California red-legged frog on March 13, 2001. A lawsuit challenging the designation was filed in the Northern District Court of California on June 8, 2001. Plaintiffs included the Home Builders Association of Northern California, California Chamber of Commerce, California Building Industry Association, California Alliance for Jobs, and the Building Industry Legal Defense. All but two of the critical habitat units were vacated by the Northern District Court of California on Nov. 6, 2002. The Court cited deficiencies in both the critical habitat designation, and the required economic analysis. It ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a new economic analysis and publish a new critical habitat proposal by March 2004 and a final revised rule by November 2005. On November 23, 2005, the court granted a motion to extend the deadline until March 31, 2006, for submittal of the final critical habitat for publication in the Federal Register. Today's publication is in compliance with that court order. Q. How did the Fish and Wildlife Service determine the boundaries of the final critical habitat units? A. The Service defined unit boundaries based on wetland habitats, stream reaches, watershed boundaries, and the known distances the frogs can disperse in upland areas (0.7 miles). The Service selected areas of high California red-legged frog abundance, areas essential to maintain connectivity between frog populations, and/or areas of unique ecological significance. Q. How is this critical-habitat rule different from the critical habitat the Service adopted in 2001 and re-proposed in 2004 and 2005? A. The November proposed acreage of 737,912 was about 18 percent of the area the Service proposed in 2004 in 25 counties. The November proposal contained 51 units, compared to 31 in the original designation, but the units were generally smaller. In its final rule, the Service reduced by 40 percent the 737,912 acres proposed for critical habitat last November. The Service eliminated 250,000 acres of proposed critical habitat, about 90 percent of the acreage reduction, based an economic analysis required under the ESA. Although a substantial acreage was eliminated from critical habitat because of economics, landowners in those areas are not exempt from the ESA. In its rule the Service points out that landowners still must consult with the Service and provide appropriate mitigation if they propose to harm the frog. The basic protection against harming the species is provided by the fact that it is a listed species under the ESA, rather than by designation of critical habitat. The final rule designates 34 units of critical habitat in 20 counties: Alameda, Butte, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Kern, Los Angeles, Marin, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Ventura and Yuba. Several counties with proposed critical habitat were entirely eliminated from the final rule, including Calaveras and Riverside. Some areas also were eliminated due to other plans in place or being developed to provide protection for the species. These include: eastern Contra Costa County where a regional Habitat Conservation Plan is nearly completed, several military bases with on-going management plans, and some lower Sierra areas managed under forest protection plans. About 36 percent of the land is Federally owned, 5 percent state-owned, and 59 percent privately owned. Q. What are the threats to the California red-legged frog? A. The frog and its habitat are threatened by a multitude of factors including but not limited to: • Degradation and loss of habitat through urbanization, mining, improper management of grazing, recreation, invasion of nonnative plants, impoundments, water diversions and degraded water quality. • Introduced predators, such as bullfrogs. • Previous overexploitation. Q. Why are the designated habitat units in this rule so much smaller than in the previous proposals? A. The original proposed rule of more than 4.1 million acres was very expansive and included areas that did not contain one or more of the primary habitat elements for the red-legged frog or were not occupied by the species. It designated blocks of watersheds that may or may not have had frogs living there. Previous proposals also did not conduct the level of economic analysis called for by recent court decisions. Those areas were not essential to the conservation of the California red-legged frog and thus were removed from the revised proposal released in November 2005. The final rule includes blocks of contiguous habitat that provide geographic distribution across the range of the subspecies, contains high quality habitat, allows for the long-term viability of the subspecies, represents the range of habitat and environmental variability the subspecies occupies, avoids conflict with commercial and residential development, focuses on public lands where available, and where possible, overlaps with other critical habitat designations. In this designation, the Service used the best scientific information available in determining the areas essential for the California red-legged frog. The Service re-examined all initially proposed areas and removed any areas that were: (1) highly degraded and not restorable; (2) small, highly fragmented, or isolated with little or no long-term conservation value; and/or (3) not needed in a region to meet conservation goals. As a result of this refined approach, the current proposal includes more, smaller units which more accurately reflect the requirements and known distribution of the California red-legged frog. Based on a refined approach, some areas previously proposed as critical habitat are no longer included, and based on new occurrence records there are several areas where units did not exist in the previous designation which have been determined essential and are proposing for critical habitat designation. Two unoccupied units (Unit 5 in Tuolumne and Mariposa Counties and Unit 31 in Los Angeles County ) from a previous proposal are not included. Q. What protection does the California red-legged frog receive as a listed species? A. The Endangered Species Act forbids the import, export or interstate or foreign sale of protected animals and plants without a special permit. It also makes "take" illegal – forbidding the killing, harming, harassing, possessing or removing of protected animals from the wild. Federal agencies must consult with the Service to ensure that projects they authorize, fund or carry out are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered or threatened species, or result in the destruction or adverse modification of designated critical habitat. Q. What is being done to save the California red-legged frog? A. Recovery planning for this species began shortly after the 1996 listing. Species experts, state and Federal agency representatives, and stakeholders representing a variety of interests developed a comprehensive plan to recover the species. A copy of the recovery plan is available at the Service's national Web site. A recovery plan is an advisory document, so cooperation from private property owners and other stakeholders is voluntary. But that cooperation is crucial to achieving success. In working to carry out the recovery plan, the Service is working with a variety of public and private partners to: • Protect existing populations by reducing threats. • Restore and create habitat that will be protected and managed in perpetuity. • Survey and monitor populations and conduct research on the species. • And re-establish populations of the species within the historic range. Recovery actions occurring that help the frog include regional Habitat Conservation Plans, Candidate Conservation Agreements, grants to private landowners, and surveys of frog habitat. Q. What happens if my private property is designated critical habitat for the California red-legged frog? A. The designation of critical habitat on privately-owned land does not mean the government wants to acquire or control the land. Activities on private lands that do not require Federal permits or funding are not affected by a critical habitat designation. Critical habitat does not require landowners to carry out any special management actions or restrict the use of their land. However, the ESA prohibits any individual from engaging in unauthorized activities that will actually harm listed wildlife, including the California red-legged frog. That prohibition is in effect for any Federally listed wildlife, with or without regards to the designation of critical habitat. In the areas eliminated from the proposed rule, most land-disturbing activities that would affect the species will require consultation with the Service and, if the species is adversely impacted, mitigation. Q. Why did Service adopt the special 4(d) rule? A. The Service believes that the special rule, adopted under Section 4(d) of the ESA, will encourage the conservation of private and other non-Federal rangeland. Q. How would the special 4(d) rule work? A. Under normal circumstances, the ESA prohibits the “taking” of listed species – which, among other things, means the direct killing or injuring of a species or adversely modifying its habitat. Under the 4(d) rule, the Service waives the “take” prohibitions on routine ranching activities on non-Federal rangeland. That means that in the course of their routine ranching activities, ranchers who accidentally kill or injure the California red-legged frog, or modify habitat areas, would not be liable under the ESA. The Service believes that this special rule will provide a net benefit to the species. It will encourage landowners and ranchers operating on non-Federal land to continue their livestock-related practices and thereby conserve habitat for the California red-legged frog. A notable benefit of ranching for the California red-legged frog is the operation of stock watering ponds. Many of those ponds have become home to the frogs, especially in areas where native streams and ponds that previously were inhabited by frogs have been lost. Q. What are examples of “routine ranching activities” that would be covered by this rule? A. Routine activities may vary from one ranching operation to another, and vary with changing environmental and economic conditions. Routine ranching activities generally include livestock grazing, stock pond management and maintenance, some methods of rodent control, weed control, and fire prevention management. But it could also include other activities that a rancher undertakes to maintain a sustainable ranching operation. The Service's premise for not attempting to regulate routine activities is that, ultimately, a rancher acting in the best interest of maintaining a sustainable ranching operation also is providing incidental but significant conservation benefits for the California red-legged frog. Q. Does this special rule set any guidelines or rules for acceptable ranching practices? A. In this special rule, the Service describes and recommends best management practices for carrying out routine ranching activities in ways that would minimize take of California red-legged frogs. But the Service is not requiring these practices. Q. Does the special rule exempt all ranching activities? A. No. Certain activities detrimental to frogs and their habitat would not be covered by the exemption. For instance: -- The rule allows the control and management of burrow complexes using discing and grading to destroy burrows and fill openings. But this exemption does not apply to areas within 0.7 mi (1.2 km) of known or potential California red-legged frog breeding ponds. -- The rule allows the routine management and maintenance of stock ponds and berms to maintain livestock water supplies. But this exemption does not include the intentional introduction of species into a stock pond (including non-native fish and bullfrogs) that may prey on California red-legged frog adults, larvae, or eggs. -- The rule allows the repair and maintenance of unimproved ranch roads. But this exemption does not include improvement, upgrade, or construction of new roads. Q. How much rangeland would be covered by this special 4(d) rule? A. The Service projects that some 1 million acres of non-Federal rangeland (mostly privately owned but including cattle operations that occur on some state and local government land) provides habitat for the California red-legged frog and thus would fall under this special rule. Q. Would irrigated or cultivated farmland or orchards be covered by this rule? A. No. The Service recognizes that some agricultural practices, specifically routine ranching practices, provide some beneficial features for the California red-legged frog. But an exemption for all routine agricultural practices (e.g., dairy, orchard, vineyard, and row crop activities) is not appropriate for the conservation of the California red-legged frog. | ||||||
