"Mormon pioneers saw the frogs as messengers of clean water. Now, their survival is jeopardized by habitat loss, drought and soaring heat."
"HEBER VALLEY, Utah—Finding Columbia spotted frogs in Utah's mountains is not easy. But it's possible, with a guide like Paula Trater. She leads a visitor down a dirt path, then through mucky wetlands filled with cattails and a riot of birdsong.
On this cool, spring afternoon, she stops at a breeding hotspot. She points out a pair of male frogs wrestling in shallow water as they show off for potential mates at the edge of the cattails. Listen, she says, for the "cluckcluckcluck" of spotted frogs calling out for love. And look there, just under the water's surface, at that gob of frog eggs. Those dark specks in the goopy mass: they're soon-to-be tadpoles.
What Trater, a biological technician for the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission, cannot do is rewind the clock to a time when Columbia spotted frogs were plentiful here in Wasatch County. Utah's spotted frogs were so rare by 1990 that they were being eyed for endangered species protections."
Judy Fahys reports for InsideClimate in collaboration with KUNC News April 1, 2020.
