A federal judge has ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service
must act on petitions requesting that the Yosemite toad and the
Sierra yellow-legged frog be given protection under the federal
Endangered Species Act. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit
filed by Earthjustice on behalf of the Center for Biological
Diversity and the Pacific Rivers Council. The mountain yellow-
legged frog was historically the most abundant frog in the
Sierra Nevada, distributed widely in high elevation lakes and
streams from Plumas to Tulare Counties. Recent surveys have
found that the species has disappeared from 70 to 90 percent of
its former habitat. Remaining frog populations are widely
scattered and consist of few breeding adults. What was thought
to be one of the largest remaining populations, containing 2000
adult frogs as recently as 1996, has collapsed to only two frogs
in a 1999 survey. The Yosemite toad was once common in the high
country of the central Sierra Nevada from Fresno to Alpine
Counties. As with the frog, r