A $400 Million dollar effort, called the Amphibian Survival Alliance is being launched to try and stem the tide of losing thousands of amphibian species.
Between nine and 122 species have slipped over the edge to oblivion since 1980, when the assessment said the most dramatic declines began.
That's the saddest thing I've read all week. Childhood would be forever changed without summers spent catching frogs and salamanders in the streams and creeks.
Not to mention how utterly cool they are in general.
Write your congress people and urge them to increase support for the USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (a congressionally mandated project). The very small 5 million bucks that was earmarked for this effort has been continuously eroded over the last 5 years since the initiative began in 2000 such that a considerable amount of the money goes to pay scientist's salaries rather than into field research. That 5 million is shared among 10 principle investigators in biology, the water resources discipline, and the mapping discipline. The Biological Resources Discipline at USGS continues to cut funding and pay more attention to gas and oil needs in spite of being biology focused.
Write your congress people and urge them to increase support for the USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (a congressionally mandated project). The very small 5 million bucks that was earmarked for this effort has been continuously eroded over the last 5 years since the initiative began in 2000 such that a considerable amount of the money goes to pay scientist's salaries rather than into field research. That 5 million is shared among 10 principle investigators in biology, the water resources discipline, and the mapping discipline. The Biological Resources Discipline at USGS continues to cut funding and pay more attention to gas and oil needs in spite of being biology focused.