From: Dan Dugan <>
>
> John Hartog wrote:
>
>
>>>Wow Dan, what an urban nature experiance. Are you thinking
>>>this frog relocation prank was designed just for you? Or is the
>>>real prank on the group that shows up tomorrow to get video
>>>taped?
>
>
> Well, I don't know if it's a prank; more likely an attempt to
> monkeywrench the construction project. Certainly not aimed at me,
> though I'm proud I'm the only one who did reconaissance on it. A
> biologist would bust the fake, too, because it's the wrong time of
> year for the breeding calls. BTW I didn't hear a peep of any wildlife
> in the brush on either of my trips there today.
>
> I went back late in the evening to show my intern Zach and his friend
> Claire. Zach found the player wrapped in a plastic bag.
>
> The artist colony that lives in converted warehouses there doesn't
> want to have their front yard torn up. But the sewer pipe has to be
> fixed, there's no avoiding it.
Assuming there really are frogs there, they survived the original
construction to put the pipe in. No reason they won't survive this.
Unless the volunteers, in their zeal to save the plants, strip the place
bare.
Let us know what happens, it will be amusing at least.
> It's a lovely little strip of wild land along the shore of the
> slough, and it's certainly worth preserving. Part of it was torn up
> to put that sewer pipe in a decade ago, and about a quarter of it
> will have to be torn up again to fix it now. In another ten years it
> will be back to wild land again. Actually it will be improved for
> land critters, because the construction plans include a berm to
> prevent inundation by astronomical high tides.
>
> If the volunteers create some fresh-water ponds after the
> construction, Pacific chorus frogs would be able to breed there. And
> mosquitoes. There's no natural surface water there; indeed, the land
> isn't natural to start with. It's 19th-century haphazard fill over
> salt marshes, same as where I live.
>
We have frogs here that are expanding their range utilizing the temp
pools created by logging. If there are frogs there, then they might use
the pool created by the construction work. It's actually better if they
are messy and don't clean up. If they grade it all nice and smooth, and
plant grass, it's all over.
Walt
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