Owyhee County ranchers and Feds work to save the Spotted Columbian Frog

When you think of a rancher and an environmentalist you may not think they could be the same person, but you should. You don't have to look further than Owyhee County, where ranchers worked to save the Spotted Columbian Frog.

• Ranchers are working with the government to save the Spotted Columbian Frog in Owyhee County.
• Jason Pyron with U.S. Fish and Wildlife says it’s a great example of how the government and private landowners can work together.

( Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)

Owyhee County ranchers Jerry Hoagland and Chris Black have grazed cattle their entire lives and their families have for generations. So, when US Fish and Wildlife approached Jerry and Chris about the livelihood of the spotted Columbian frog on their private land they listened to what they had to say. The frog is considered a candidate species for being endangered. Jason Pyron with U.S. Fish and Wildlife says it’s a great example of how the government and private landowners can work together.

Pyron explained, “People like Jerry and Chris have an intricate understanding of how that relationship is. We are incredibly fortunate to work with them and the cattle producers.”

Chris Black put it this way, “The only habitat they have is our stock ponds, why don’t we build more stock ponds.”

But to do that they needed to build man-made beaver dams to create a wetlands area. “When you divert the water into these meadows, they’re like a sponge.”

Good for the frogs and their cattle as well. Water is their life. So Controlling the spread of thirsty Juniper trees is very important.

I walked out to the middle of the meadow and saw juniper trees are invasive to mountain meadows. So why do the ranchers want to thin some of the junipers out? Well, because the suck 35 gallons of water out of the ground everyday so with the cooperation with state of Idaho they come in and start clearing them out.”

The BLM assists in the cutting and burning the Juniper piles. Black says the two can work together. “We can’t do it ourselves funding and the Fish and Wildlife service that funds these things like the project, like the frogs enhances their goods but also works for us because we can graze livestock in there.”

Jerry joked that years ago an Outdoor magazine reporter from Los Angeles made a visit and told her colleagues what she was writing about, and they told her, these guys actually care about the environment? Hoagland says it’s the biggest compliment he’s ever received.