PACIFICA, Calif. – An environmental group is suing the California Coastal Commission and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department to protect frogs and snakes on the city-owned Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica.

The course was built on the Laguna Salada wetlands 83 years ago, and it floods every winter - so the city wants to pour a concrete pad for the pump that drains rainwater to the sea.

Brent Plater, who heads the nonprofit Wild Equity Institute that filed the suit, said the drainage process harms the California red-legged frog.

"The waters recede, the egg masses for a frog called the California red-legged frog," he said. "It's the California state frog, a threatened species under federal law. Exposed to the air, and you can lose an entire generation of frog."

The city already has begun renovations and has proposed the creation of a new lagoon area to help protect the frogs.

Plater said lawnmowers on the property also kill the San Francisco garter snake, which is believed to be on the brink of extinction. His group wants the city to scrap the golf course altogether.

"What we propose instead," he said, "is that the city partner with the National Park Service and create a new kind of public park out there that everybody can enjoy, including the endangered species on the property."

The lawsuit, which is online at wildequity.org, was filed last week in San Mateo Superior Court.


get more stories like this via email

WARREN, Pa. -- A temporary animal-feeding ban is being proposed for the Allegheny National Forest after a captive deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD) in nearby Warren County.

The disease, first detected in Pennsylvania in 2012, attacks the brain and causes overall wasting of the affected animal, often deer or elk. The latest CWD case, in May, prompted the state to establish a fifth Disease Management Area (DMA), where feeding is banned for at least five years and deer within and surrounding the area are tested for the disease frequently.

Andrea Korman, chronic wasting disease biologist at the Pennsylvania Game Commission, recommended never feeding wild animals, even if it was not banned.

"We do know it increases transmission of all diseases, not just CWD," Korman reported. "It changes behavior of deer, it habituates them, it makes them more likely to be struck by a vehicle. They're also more likely to get parasites and all kinds of other not great consequences, whenever you are feeding them in a non-natural way."

The U.S. Forest Service will accept public comments on the proposed one-year feeding ban through August 13. The agency expects a decision by the end of the month.

For hunters in the region, it's recommended any animals be tested for CWD.

Scott Weber, interagency liaison with the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Wildlife Futures Program at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, advised if the test is positive, the meat should not be consumed. He added it is important to dispose of the animal properly, in a landfill, to prevent any further spread of the disease.

"When you see a clinical case identified, it's really just the tip of the iceberg," Weber explained. "Because that clinical case at the top of the iceberg is really, essentially, hiding that below it are all these other infections that are going on, that are being undetected until they show these clinical signs."

The Game Commission has a CWD hotline where the public can ask questions and report sightings of deer or elk that appear to be sick: 833-463-6293.

BOSTON -- A new survey finds widespread public support up and down the East Coast for protecting right whales from getting tangled up in fishing gear, specifically, the vertical lines that connect lobster and crab traps from the sea floor to the surface.

Katharine Deuel, marine conservation officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts, which released the poll, said nine of 10 East Coast residents surveyed said it is important for the government to protect right whales.

"The North Atlantic Right Whale is a species that is currently in crisis," Deuel explained. "It is a critically endangered species, and there are only about 350 individual right whales left swimming in our waters."

Deuel added more than 70% of respondents support closing high-risk areas for whales to certain fishing gear, and nearly 90% support fishermen using gear that doesn't harm whales, which is becoming more widely available.

She pointed out such solutions can allow right whales and fishermen to coexist, and her group is among those that filed an emergency action petition with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

Ben Hellerstein, state director for Environment Massachusetts, which also joined the petition, added there have been 34 confirmed deaths of right whales in U.S. and Canadian waters in the last four years.

He noted said even when whales do not die, getting caught up in vertical lines can cause them major stress.

"Scientists actually believe that it is one of the causes of declining birth rates among the right whale population, the sort of stress of these encounters is actually making it harder for them to reproduce," Hellerstein reported.

Hellerstein stated there is something about North Atlantic right whales that resonates with people.

"You know, these animals are gentle giants," Hellerstein remarked. "They grow to be about the size of a school bus, and yet they feed almost entirely off of these small crustaceans."

The emergency action petition recommends prohibiting fishing with vertical lines in a few specific locations with the highest likelihood of right whale entanglement, one yearlong closure south of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and five seasonal closures off the coast of Maine.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

CARSON CITY, Nev. - A bill just introduced in the U.S, Senate would help thousands of species stay off the Endangered Species List - including bighorn sheep, golden eagles and the Lahontan cutthroat trout in Nevada.

The Recovering America's Wildlife Act would put $1.4 billion a year toward conservation efforts. Almost 25 million of that would go to Nevada.

Russell Kuhlman, executive director of the Nevada Wildlife Federation, said the funding would save us a bundle going forward.

"It's really that an ounce of prevention is equal to a pound of cure," said Kuhlman. "In the long run, it's going to save us from spending even more money to bring them back essentially from the edge of extinction."

The bill was introduced in the U.S, House of Representatives in April but has yet to receive a hearing or a vote.

Kulhman said the money would help state, tribal and federal agencies work together to take species from one state and replenish populations elsewhere.

"Nevada was the source population that helped reintroduce desert sheep throughout the West," said Kuhlman. "And we were able to take the healthy population of sheep that we had and share them with Arizona and Utah as well. "

Gila monsters, for example, are rarely seen in Nevada these days. But Kuhlman said he hopes this bill would allow wildlife managers in New Mexico to help re-establish the lizards in the Silver State.