Arizona pond renovation project will help protect vulnerable leopard frog population

Extended drought, disease and predators are threatening the Chiricahua leopard frog, a native species to Arizona. A recent pond renovation project will advance conservation efforts, which have been ongoing since 2007.

A group of volunteers spent two weeks digging and lining six pond sites in the White Mountain Grasslands Wildlife Area to support the frogs amid ongoing drought.

The more ponds, the better, says Audrey Owens with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

“That's kind of just like hedging our bets, and so during drought, if one of these ponds maintains water, then it will prevent the whole population from disappearing,” she said.

Five of the ponds will be fed by rainfall and the sixth by a nearby well. The wetlands are expected to support not only frogs, but also bighorn sheep and elk — which graze the area — as well as yellow-billed cuckoos, another threatened species.

The leopard frog has been federally protected for decades. Drought, and predation from bullfrogs and crayfish, has eliminated much of its wild habitat.

An incurable fungal disease, chytridiomycosis, has also made it hard for them to thrive.

Still, Owens said the leopard frog population is stronger today than when recovery plans began.

“There are some years that the frogs do better because like there's a really good monsoon and when there's good rains the frogs breed more and they disperse more and they go occupy more sites, so those numbers go up and down from one year to the next,” she said.

“In general, we are moving in the right direction with this species, and that's in large part because of the number of people and organizations involved in recovery of the species," Owens said.

The project was made possible by the Arizona Game and Fish Department, Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy, Wetland Restoration and Training LLC, the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, and the U.S. Forest Service.