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Weyerhaeuser Company, the firm with big operations in southeast Oklahoma just ran into a federal court ruling in Louisiana and it focuses on the endangered dusky gopher frog.
The Fifth Circuit recently rejected the timber giant’s appeal of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to declare 1,600 acres of private property in Louisiana as a refuge for the frog.
The company made the argument that the Fish and Wildlife Service had “overstepped” its authority by designating their land in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana as a “critical habitat” that could be used to revive the species which is on the edge of extinction with fewer than 100 adult frogs.
The federal appeals court upheld the protections for 6,477 acres of habitat in Louisiana and Mississippi.
“This important ruling is good news for these endangered frogs that desperately need room to recover,” declared Collette Adkins, an attorney who works to conserve amphibians and reptiles with the Center for Biological Diversity. “If the owners of the St. Tammany Parish lands were willing to work cooperatively with the Service, they could take reasonable steps to help save the frog while still keeping their lands in business.”
The ruling came even though the frogs no longer live on the St. Tammany Parish lands and the court agreed those lands are essential because they contain five ephemeral ponds, each within hopping distance of the next. Dusky gopher frogs lay their eggs only in such temporary ponds which are free of fish that would devour their eggs.