Until I can see the published reports on both populations of our
Cricket frog in MN I will not acknowledge that your southern
populations are even the same species as the MN populations. I await
those reports and suspect it will not be concluded this year.
Not that there will be any agreement as to what is a species when that
happens but I suspect you will care as little no matter what the results.
Rich
--- In Walter Knapp <>
wrote:
> From: "Rich Peet" <>
>
> > The MN Northern Cricket Frog is neither "accidental" or "occasional"
> > to MN. It is a breeding species that needs state protection.
>
> That is up to the state. It's a tiny portion of the entire distribution
> of a breeding species. If you think it's a separate species, start by
> getting the herp community to agree on that. Publish the necessary
> scientific papers showing why.
>
> > The waiting list has become a dead list for federal endangered species
> > protection. State protection is the only protection that can be
> > currently expected.
>
> In this case, the Northern Cricket Frog is not as a species in any
> danger. It's one of the more numerous frogs in North America. As
such it
> does not qualify for federal protection and it is inappropriate to
blame
> the federal system.
>
> However if the state wishes to designate their fragment of the Northern
> Cricket Frog for their own special protection, that's a separate issue,
> entirely up to the state. It is, however, entirely a emotional issue.
>
> > For the current situation on the Bush record for federal endangered
> > species protection you can start here.
> > http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/wildlife_species.asp
>
> Again, this has no bearing on the MN Northern Cricket Frog population.
>
> > The tools to protect an eco-system rather than a specific species are
> > more important and more scary as we never have had a good evaluation
> > and implementation technique for federal protection of areas. For that
> > you have to look more broadly at what has occured in just the last 5
> > years.
>
> Indeed, the protection of a species without protection of it's habitat
> and ecosystem is a joke.
>
> Also the idea that a particular ecosystem would continue as is for all
> time is a bit unrealistic. Change is the name of the game, with or
> without the effects of the human species.
>
> Walt
>
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