Most people only think about frogs when one begins to croak outside their bedroom window. A small spotted frog underwent a long process of second chances in the Southeastern Arizona region. According to the US Fish & Wildlife Service's case study on restoring leopard frog habitat, partners in the Cienega Creek watershed eradicated invasive American bullfrogs and re-established suitable habitats for the threatened Chiricahua leopard frog, whose population had proliferated by the end of the tracking period, albeit with fine print.
The effort was a multi-faceted one, not carried out by a single agency. The Frog & Fish Restoration Outreach Group ran the program from 2010–2013, and the Cienega Watershed Partnership continued it under the same name through 2019. The effort involved partners such as the University of Arizona, Arizona Game and Fish Department, Bureau of Land Management, and the US Forest Service.
