The City of Santa Cruz voted unanimously today (January 24, 2012) to ban the sale, release, importation and possession of American Bullfrogs. This makes Santa Cruz the first city in the country to take such a step, and sets an important precedent for other jurisdictions to follow. The non-native frogs spread chytrid fungus and prey on native wildlife. California currently imports several million of the bullfrogs into the state each year. This is the first piece of legislation SAVE THE FROGS! has gotten passed. On February 28, 2012 the County of Santa Cruz will vote on similar legislation. We are currently petitioning the Governor Jerry Brown to make statewide bullfrog legislation.

Read these two news stories for more info on the bullfrog ban
– Public News Service article
– KION article

“I have lived in Scotts Valley since 1967. As a kid I spent a lot of time exploring the fields, forests, and wetlands of my home. Back then you couldn’t walk ten yards across a field without encountering a garter snake or two. There were small ponds and swampy areas all around that were just full of frogs and snakes and stuff. It was a really great place to grow up and through my early curiosity in all things cold-blooded I developed a real appreciation for and interest in snakes and frogs. The reason I am writing now is that for the first time I can remember, when I open my window at night I can not here a single frog…not one…all year.

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Known to the state of California to cause cancer and/or reproductive defects, Methyl Iodide is a harmful pesticide currently approved for use on strawberries. In Santa Cruz County, these strawberry fields surround the last remaining habitat of the Santa Cruz Long-Toed Salamander, one of the world’s most endangered salamanders. Read SAVE THE FROGS! Founder Dr. Kerry Kriger’s letter to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors asking them to ban methyl iodide.

We are happy to announce that SAVE THE FROGS has completed its relocation from Virginia to beautiful Santa Cruz, California, at the northern end of the Monterey Bay, about 110km south of San Francisco. Santa Cruz and the Bay Area have strong environmental movements and some of the world’s most imaginative thinkers. We plan to use this to our advantage to make Santa Cruz the most frog-friendly city on the planet, and California the epicentre of the world’s amphibian conservation efforts.

We’ll be announcing the first of our California initiatives soon, so keep checking the FrogBlog (subscribe to our RSS feed!), and make sure you’re signed up for the SAVE THE FROGS! Newsletter.

Here are some photos of SAVE THE FROGS Headquarters

51 Ways to Save The Frogs, this is the front entrance of STFHQ:

This is how much furniture we started with!

We still need to purchase chairs, desks, filing cabinets, a printer, modem, router, and a few computers so we can get volunteers in here. Lots of volunteers! Please donate $20 today! and help us get this show on the road! Thanks!

Lots of windows, so no electric lighting necessary during the day:

The view out the back window: