Mark Twain's "Celebrated Jumping Frog" Receives Protection

After a delay of over eight years and under federal court order, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today issued a rule to protect the habitat of the threatened California red-legged frog.  The rule covers over five million acres of the frog’s delicate habitat throughout California and will help ensure that development and other harmful activities do not push the frog into extinction. The Service’s action came in response to a successful federal court lawsuit filed by several regional conservation groups.

The California red-legged frog is the largest native frog in the western United States, and once could be found throughout much of California.  Mark Twain secured the frog's literary reputation in his short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”  Today, the California red-legged frog can be found only in isolated pockets along the coast, with a few scattered survivors in the Sierra Nevada.

 “After years of delay and litigation, the government has finally complied with the law by protecting this habitat,” said Dr. Robert Stack, president of the Jumping Frog Research Institute, one of the conservation plaintiffs. “This protection will help Mark Twain’s famous jumping frog get back up on its little webbed feet.”  

Deanna Spooner of the Pacific Rivers Council, another plaintiff in the lawsuit, said, “We’re disappointed that the Service omitted meaningful protection for the frog’s habitat in the Sierra Nevada range, where the frog has been virtually wiped out.  Nonetheless, protection of habitat elsewhere will benefit the red-legged frog statewide.”

Initially, the Service refused to protect the frog’s habitat, an action required under the federal Endangered Species Act.  The Service’s failure prompted the federal court lawsuit, which was decided in December 1999 by Judge William Alsup in San Francisco.  Judge Alsup found that the Service was in violation of the law and set a deadline for the Service to finalize a habitat designation.  

“Developers may raise a hue and cry over this rule, but the Service used sound science in designating this habitat,” said  Jan Hasselman, an attorney with Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund representing the conservation groups.  “The focus should now shift from the courts to on-the-ground protection for the frog.”   

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the Jumping Frog Research Institute, Pacific Rivers Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation, and Responsible Consumers of the Monterey Peninsula.  The conservation groups were represented by Jan Hasselman and Kristen Boyles of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.