Groups work to save Utah's spotted frog

Private developers and state officials are teaming up to save the Columbia spotted frog.

The recent agreement culminates a five-year effort among the DWR, other natural resource agencies and the Victory Ranch Club to protect the frog. The Victory Ranch Club is an exclusive development that includes home sites, cabins, an equestrian center and a Rees Jones-designed golf course.

The Victory Ranch Club is turning over 600 acres of private land as well as donating more than $235,000 to help cover the costs of monitoring and protecting the frog.

Krissy Wilson, native aquatic species coordinator for the DWR, said the conservation easement is a good example of how private developers and natural resource agencies can work together to protect wildlife.

More than 50 years ago, the Columbia spotted frog was found throughout the Wasatch Front and was the most abundant frog around the Woodland and Kamas area.

Spotted frog populations have declined since then because of a loss of wetland habitats, the introduction of mosquito fish and other wildlife species that aren't native to the area and to poor water quality.

The Columbia spotted frog has been petitioned twice for listing as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Recent accomplishments related to the frog include:

• Two conservation easements that protect 167 acres of critical spotted frog habitat in Sanpete County have been entered into.

• Several more conservation easements are being negotiated.

• Two previously unknown spotted frog populations were recently discovered by DWR personnel as they conducted spotted frog surveys near Vernon and in the Diamond Fork River areas in central Utah.

• Several research studies to determine the habitat requirements for the spotted frog have been commissioned.

• Several thousand acres of spotted frog habitat in Juab and Wasatch counties have been modified and enhanced. Most of the restored habitat is found within an area along the Provo River in the Heber Valley that is being restored by the Utah Reclamation and Mitigation Conservation Commission.

• Studies to develop a protocol to safely reintroduce the Columbia spotted frog back into its historic habitat along the Wasatch Front are under way.