By CHRIS NICHOLS -- photo by Dr. Mark Jennings
Residents, ranchers, environmentalists and Calaveras County officials are expected to attend a forum next month to discuss proposed critical habitat for the red-legged frog.
Sponsored by the Calaveras County Farm Bureau, the forum will be held at 1 p.m. Jan. 10 at the Calaveras County Library in San Andreas.
If a statewide habitat preservation plan drafted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is approved this spring, about 700,000 acres in 23 counties would be designated critical habitat for the red-legged frog. The species is widely considered the inspiration for Mark Twain's famous short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."
But the red-legged from has since fallen prey to the bullfrog and is now classified as "threatened" by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Up to 4,450 acres of that land lies northwest of Valley Springs. Only a handful of red-legged frogs, however, have been discovered in Calaveras County.
Designating the Valley Springs land as critical habitat would not prohibit developers from building new homes or shopping centers there. It would, however, require federal authorities to survey the land for ponds and wetlands where the frogs might live before development could occur on a site.
If the survey finds frog habitat, developers could be prevented from building. But some exceptions would be made if a developer agreed to pay to preserve other stretches of habitat.
Calaveras County's Environmental Management Agency is expected to take part in the forum.
The forum is open to the public and designed to provide general information and an opportunity to ask questions.
A public comment period on the critical habitat plan ends Feb. 1, 2006.
Written comments on that plan must be submitted to the Field Supervisor, Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2800 Cottage Way, Suite W-2605, Sacramento, CA 95825 or by fax to (916) 414-6712.
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