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Frog habitat destroyed  on Phillips Brooks School property
by Lennie Roberts

The celebrated jumping frog of Mark Twain's  day isn't jumping with joy these days in Woodside. The 92-acre site owned  by Phillips Brooks School is home to the federally protected California
red-legged  frog, which inhabits two small ponds on the property, along with the  southwestern pond turtle and many other aquatic critters.

The frogs used to be found in vast areas of the state, but today their  population has dwindled to such a degree that they are listed as a Federally  Threatened Species. Any project that may affect their habitat is required  to adopt strict measures to protect the frogs from any possibility of  "taking" (killing).

The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the now-defunct Phillips Brooks  School project, acknowledging that frogs are on the property, required  that a 100-foot buffer zone be established around any wetland site on  the property, where no disturbance would be allowed to occur. The EIR  also recommended measures for fire protection such as mowing a fire break  in the grasslands, but required that no mowing should invade the 100-foot  buffer zone around the ponds and wetlands.

The ink was hardly dry on the EIR last June when the school, apparently  at the specific request of the Woodside Fire Department, mowed a 100-foot  wide swath through the grasslands along the edges of the property. In  direct contravention of the EIR mitigation measures for the frog, the  school invaded the buffer zone and mowed right up next to the edge of  the wetlands around the ponds.

It is unknown whether any frogs were killed by this irresponsible mowing.  There wasn't any investigation of the mowing until Committee for Green  Foothills filed a complaint with the fish and wildlife agencies in July,  and by then it was too late to look for dead frogs. However, under the  Endangered Species Act, destroying habitat is also a violation of the  law. Frogs use areas beyond ponds for foraging, and have been documented  to range up to a mile from streams and wetlands, so this mowing has certainly  altered conditions of the natural habitat on which they depend.

This incident points out an all too frequent pattern with EIRs and mitigation  measures. Great attention is paid to instituting protections, and the  applicant(s) profess that they are committed to being good stewards of  the land, but over time critical mitigation measures are forgotten or  ignored. With an institution, it is particularly difficult to ensure that  mitigation measures become an enduring part of their operation, as institutional  memories can be lost as people come and go.

Since the summertime devastation of the frog habitat,
the  Woodside Planning Commission voted 4-3 to deny the controversial proposed  development of this rural property , planned for several years by Phillips  Brooks School.

Meanwhile, the frogs didn't have a voice in this debate. We hope that  Woodside's leaders will speak up for the frogs - and for open space -  as they deliberate on future uses of this property.


Published October 2002 in Green  Footnotes.
Page last updated November 4, 2002.

 

 

Copyright 2001 Committee for Green Foothills

Photo by John Sullivan (red-legged frog), Ribbit  Photography.