[Fwd: SFGate: Tough, African frogs infest S.F. pond -- scientists deliberate in wake of pike fiasco/State aware of exotics in Golden Gate Park but tight on cash and uncertain of solution]

[Guest guest]

Some Letters to the Editor would be helpful. Also to the Dept. of Fish

& Game (1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA 95814). The new director is

Ryan Broddrick. The Dept. spends hundreds of thousands of dollars

annually promoting non-native species such as striped bass, wild

turkeys, ring-necked pheasant, chukar partridge, etc., for the

hunting/fishing community, yet hasn't the political/ethical will to

clean up a potential environmental disaster such as the African Clawed

Frogs in Golden Gate Park. Maybe some irate letters from the public

will inspire them into action. You might even make the live animal food

market connection, and ask for a permanent ban on the importation of all

frogs and turtles for human consumption, for reasons of environmental

protection, human health, and animal welfare.

 

Cheers,

Eric Mills, coordinator

ACTION FOR ANIMALS

 

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SFGate: Tough, African frogs infest S.F. pond -- scientists

deliberate in wake of pike fiasco/State aware of exotics in Golden Gate

Park but tight on cash and uncertain of solution

Fri, 7 May 2004 22:58 -0700

eric mills <afa

Organization: SFGate, San Francisco, CA

eric mills <afa

 

 

 

 

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This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate.

The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/07/FROGS.TMP

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Friday, May 7, 2004 (SF Chronicle)

Tough, African frogs infest S.F. pond -- scientists deliberate in wake of pike

fiasco/State aware of exotics in Golden Gate Park but tight on cash and

uncertain of solution

Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer

 

 

Northern California waterways, already beset by a host of exotic species,

hardly need a taloned terminator frog from Kenya further upsetting what's

left of the balance of nature.

Trouble is, it's already here -- in Golden Gate Park's Lily Pond, to be

exact.

African clawed frogs are fecund and tougher than ticks. If their pond

dries up, they either hop away to a new one or burrow in the dirt until it

rains. They're immune to most diseases and will survive almost any wound

that doesn't kill them outright.

They'll consume any bug, slug, grub, amphibian or reptile they can cram

past their jaw hinges. And they have among the highest salt tolerance of

any amphibian, thriving in brackish sloughs that are almost half seawater.

That makes them just a little too well adapted for the Bay Area.

The Lily Pond -- a reclaimed rock quarry just east of the California

Academy of Sciences -- is crawling with African clawed frogs, and some

wildlife experts say it's only a matter of time before they spread to

other locales, if they haven't already.

No one knows how they got there, but high on the list of possibilities is

that someone from the nearby UCSF Medical Center dumped them off, because

the amphibians are used in research.

The dun-colored critters, which look like weirdly bloated cartoon frogs,

are thriving in the pond, judging from a recent afternoon visit. Though

they are primarily nocturnal, many bobbed around on the surface of the

water, gulping air before diving back to the muddy bottom.

The city of San Francisco and the California Department of Fish and Game

have known of the clawed frog situation for some time. Last year, they

were prepared to drain the pond and excavate its silty bottom in an

attempt to stem the infestation. But at the last minute, Fish and Game

pulled out.

" Fish and Game told us about the frogs, " said Becky Ballinger, a

spokeswoman for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. " They

had a sense of urgency about it, and we were prepared to help them do

whatever they had to do. Then they dropped the whole thing. I don't know

why. "

Miles Young, a retired patrol lieutenant with Fish and Game who was in

charge of the logistical details of the frog eradication project, said the

decision to cancel it was made at headquarters in Sacramento just hours

before the pumping was to begin.

" We were set to go at dawn on July 1, when acting deputy director Sonke

Mastrup sent out an e-mail at 6:33 p.m (on June 30) putting the project on

hold, " Young said. " We were all heading out to the site by then. Nobody

was online. I didn't even hear about it until 9 p.m. "

Fish and Game's brass " panicked, because we couldn't guarantee 1,000

percent that we would achieve complete eradication, " Young said. " But you

can never make a guarantee like that on this kind of operation. "

The driving element behind the cancellation of the frog project, he said,

was fear that the outcome would be similar to the agency's unsuccessful

attempt to eradicate northern pike from Lake Davis near Portola (Plumas

County).

A non-native fish, pike are voracious creatures that could decimate native

salmon, steelhead and trout populations. In 1997, the agency treated Lake

Davis -- a source of potable water for Portola and a major recreational

fishing destination -- with rotenone, a fish-killing chemical.

That operation turned into a debacle -- Portola lost its primary source of

drinking water for several weeks. The area also lost millions of dollars

in recreational revenue from fishermen and tourists who stayed away from

the lake after it was treated.

Nor did the poisoning work -- the pike are still there.

" It was a public relations disaster, but the Lily Pond isn't at all

comparable to Lake Davis, " Young said. " This is just a tiny pond, not a

huge lake. It isn't a source of drinking water or tourist dollars. We can

exert much greater control over the area.

" There is a real environmental need t0 address invasive species

infestations like (the frogs), but the agency made a purely political

decision when they stopped the project. "

Jim Swanson, a Fish and Game supervising biologist, said the agency

decided to cancel the project because the costs were high and the chances

of success were slim.

" It's no secret that we're strapped for both funding and personnel, and as

time went on it became apparent that we didn't have the resources to

ensure that we could pull this off effectively, " Swanson said.

Agency staffers queried biologists and officials in Southern California,

where African clawed frogs have established a pernicious toehold in

several areas despite aggressive control measures and several million

dollars in public expenditures.

" They haven't been particularly successful in eradicating the

populations, " Swanson said, " so we were by no means sure this would have

worked. Also, there was the issue of what to do with the water -- we

didn't want to make the problem worse by spreading eggs or larvae through

discharge water. "

Agency staffers did conduct surveys at eight other lakes and ponds in

Golden Gate Park and found no signs the frogs had expanded their range,

Swanson said.

After the pond draining was canceled, Swanson said, biologists

experimented with alternate control methods, including blowing up some

frogs, of both the clawed and bull variety, in a test pond in the Napa

marsh using detonating cord, a powerful explosive.

" They were tough, " he said. " Many of them just a few meters away

survived. "

Young said the lake surveys that biologists conducted after the

cancellation were inadequate, and the detonating cord experiments " were

conducted in a pond with a deep, muddy bottom that afforded the frogs

plenty of protection. The Lily Pond has a hard, rocky substrate that would

concentrate the blast effects. " The detonating cord " would probably work

well there. "

Susan Ellis, invasive species coordinator for Fish and Game, said the

agency is concerned about the frog getting loose in Northern California

but noted it is " one of 600 to 800 non-indigenous species in California.

It is hard to tell which exotic species will be invasive and cause

significant impacts. At this point, in terms of priorities, African clawed

frogs aren't at the top of the list. "

But that view doesn't sit well with Eric Mills, the coordinator for

Oakland-based Action for Animals. Mills has been lobbying both the

Department of Fish and Game and the state Fish and Game Commission for

more than a year to do something about the frogs.

" They know it's a very serious problem, but they just sit there like bumps

on a log, or maybe warts on a frog, " he said. " If these animals got into

the Delta, it would be a complete catastrophe. It's just like Jurassic

Park. They say nothing is going to get out -- but it always, always gets

out. " ----

Copyright 2004 SF Chronicle