Frog Poses Another Threat
For Ranchers In Southwest

By David Bowser

New Mexico ranchers, already awash in "endangered species" problems, apparently will have to deal with yet another one.

The leopard frog, which lives in stock tanks in Southwest New Mexico and Southeast Arizona, may be listed as an "endangered" species within a year.

Officials say about a dozen known populations of the frog remain in New Mexico and Arizona. There are several areas around the Gray Ranch in New Mexico’s Hidalgo County, others near Aragon and Reserve and some in the Gila National Forest. In Arizona, they are mostly in the Tonto National Forest.

The leopard frog is known to co-exist well with livestock unless tanks get low and livestock walk into them, where they may step on the frogs or their eggs.

The biggest threat to the frog, officials say, is chemicals from copper mining and copper smelting that run down canyons.

"We could have an ally in the copper industry in Arizona and New Mexico," says Don Collum, who ranches near Lordsburg, N.M.

Environmental activist groups have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the frog, but the petition doesn't mean much because the frog is a candidate for listing already, says Collum, who is also involved in endangered species actions concerning jaguars.

Collum says he was told by the Fish and Wildlife Service that they are working on a special rule under which ranchers on private property would be exempt from liability for a so-called "take" if they accidentally killed one of these frogs in the stock tank, or if their cattle step on one.

Collum says Fish and Wildlife officials apparently have come to the belated realization that they can't save endangered species without working with the ranchers.

"They need us," Collum says.

Collum has already told them that if the agency wants the cooperation of the ranchers, it needs to change its ways of doing business.

"Right now, they send us a letter and tell us all these things that have to be done and rules to go by," Collum says. "They say if we break these rules, they'll fine us or put us in jail or take our property."

Collum says he told them that if they wanted his help, they could come to his house, knock on his door and ask for it.

"You ask us if there is anything that we could tell you about these species that might help save them," Collum says. "We're in the live animal business. That's what we do every day. All of our work every day is out there trying to keep animals alive. Water, forage, protection, health for the livestock."

All these things could help the wildlife, he says.

"I think they've finally come to the conclusion that we're a key player in their programs," Collum says.

But the rule exempting accidental takings of the frog won’t apply on public lands. On public lands, ranchers will have to get a permit to cover them from any damages when they go in to clean a tank out or if the water gets low in the tank.

Authorities have been asking for permission to come on private land to check for frogs, but Collum says 98 percent of the ranchers have turned them down.

The Fish and Wildlife Service told Collum that they would like ranchers to work with them to save the frog, he says, but the agency has credibility problems.

"I don't know how sincere they are," Collum says.

But he also points out that he doesn't know how many lawsuits ranchers can fund fighting endangered species problems.

"We've asked our elected officials in Washington to try to change the law," Collum says. "I don't think we're going to get the law changed where it's going to protect us."

He was told it is an election year and the politicians don't want to handle controversial issues.

"Yet, here we are being put off the land and being put out of business because of the Endangered Species Act," Collum says. "We've always, as an industry, as individualists, gone out and solved the problems ourselves. Maybe some of the landowners want to work with them on this stuff. I think it's got to be up to individual people whether they want to work with them."

Fighting the Endangered Species Act in the courts is expensive. Collum says there may be a better way.

"I don't think courts are going to be the answer for us," he says. "I think it's going to take more involvement in the way the rules are written, if they're willing to come out and write a rule that says we're not responsible for damaging one of these frogs in the course of our business."

California passed a state law protecting agriculture.

"If you're a farmer out there and you’re driving down the field and you run over a kangaroo rat or blunt-nosed lizards or something, they can't prosecute you for that," Collum says. "That's an accidental take. We didn't ask for that, but they're willing to come up with that rule to protect us now. I think if we push a little harder, we might be able to get it for public lands, too."