WTC security and emergency response newspaper article

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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_ crease funding, Seigel says. Though happy about the listing, Seigel but says it should have happened den-variety swamp, albeit one with strikingly dear much earlier, and blames misplaced priorities: “The water. Along the bottom, hidden among plants and amount of moeny we spend on endangered species in dead leaves, were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the United States is pitiful. Here we have an animal gopher frog tadpoles. that everybody agrees is a poster child for endan- This February and March, the frogs laid 36 egg gered species, and it wasn’t on the list.” masses in the pond. Each mass, a gelatinous base- As if habitat loss and drought weren’t enough, the ball-sized glob, contained about a thousand eggs. Al- frog faces new troubles. most all of these 36,000 potential frogs will fall vic- A few months ago, at another pond less than a tim to predators, which include drring ’ away, a mysterious mile . - fungus . . deci- beetles, giant water bugs, fly larvae, g mated a frog species closely related to water snakes and turtles. So far, about I the gopher frog. Seigel and Johnson 120 tadpoles had survived long enough ; worry that the fungus, which is so new to grow legs and hop onto land — a UV6r 1116 IIGXt that it doesn’t even have a name, could number that pleases Seigel greatly. _ jump to Glen’s Pond. Seigel and his colleagues are working tew years, On top of that, a developer is plan­ to keep this territory as frog-friendly as nnti ■ ning to build a 10,000-home cnm-miini- possible. In April, the Forest Service 30,000 people ty — called Traditions — 200 yards burned the area, clearing out under- •n i-i, ■ from the pond. Over the next few ^owth and non-Longleaf trees. (Dur- ing fires, the frogs simply retreat under- Will likely , years, 30,000 people will likely move into an area that was formerly forest. ground.) Seigel also wants to reintro- duce gopher tortoises to the-area. move into an So far, the developer has expressed interest in helping the frog. He donat­ Eveiyone a^ees that protecting the gopher frog hinges on building new m- area that was ed money for a ra£o transmitter study to find out how far they roam from the termittent pon^. These ponds would harbor additional frogs and serve as m- formerly pond and has been willing to discuss a buffer zone between Traditions and surance if other ponds ceased to be us- fOrPSt the firogs’ territory. Johnson fears that able. (As Johnson put it, “you don’t notwithstanding its good intentions. want to have all your frogs in one basket.”) Seigel the development will doom the frog; and Mississippi state zoologist Tom Maim have But in Johnson’s view, they have no choice but to scouted the area for suitable sites, and hope to con­ keep working. struct the first pond later this fall. “I think we have a responsibility, in that the frog’s But keeping the frog alive is not cheap, and none demise has been due to our activities,” he says. “So of the government agencies involved are bursting it’s our obligation to see that they don’t go complete^ with surplus funds. Seigel already gets almost half ly extinct. I think it’s a little bit arrogant of people to of Mississippi’s entire $80,000 budget for endan- think that we can do. whatever we want with an ahi- gered species. Each aspect of the project, from bum- mal. We’re the stewards of eveiylhing now. We’re ing forest to cntphing tortoises, costs tHnnaanHa of the top dogs. We have to make sure that these frogs • dollars. \ continue their existence.” Being named an endangered species should in- David Kohn is a freelance writer.

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