By TONI ELLINGTON
In a hearing on January 5, 2015, environmental groups urged the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reject Weyerhaeuser Company’s appeal over designation of critical habitat for the endangered dusky gopher frog. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services has identified 1,600 acres of private property in Louisiana which it will designate as a refuge for the species. The groups argued that the land is properly designated as critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act.
The dusky gopher frog is an average of three inches long, brown or black in color, and covered in warts. Its natural habitat is in upland, sandy areas, pine forests, and wetlands. The frogs breed in abandoned mammal burrows, root holes, and crayfish burrows. The species is on the verge of extinction. The current estimated population is between 40 and 100 adult frogs, all located in Harrison County, Mississippi. The New Orleans Zoo, as well as zoos in Memphis, Detroit, Miami, and Omaha, have the frogs in captivity and are conducting artificial breeding.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services designated additional land as critical habitat in Mississippi and Louisiana for the endangered frogs in 2013. In the past, the species was naturally found in eastern Louisiana. Its habitat also once stretched from the Mississippi River to Mobile Bay, Louisiana along the Gulf Coast.
Following the designation of critical habitat, certain landowners filed suit. See Marble Interests, LLC v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, et al., Case No. 13-cv-00234 (E.D. La.), as consolidated with Case Nos. 13-362 and 13-413. Following the district court’s ruling at a trial in August 2014, the landowners appealed to the Fifth Circuit.
For updates, stay tuned to this blog, or contact Toni Ellington at (504) 599-8500.
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