The return of California red-legged frogs
The effort to return [California red-legged] frogs to Southern California, which had been ongoing by Robert Fisher from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative Program for more than 20 years, began to move the needle in San Diego County when Winchell started working with private ranchers Judy and Chuck Wheatley who had just restored a pond on their property for the reintroduction of the Western pond turtle. … The species was decimated by disease and invasives, and disappeared from San Diego County in 1974 and western Riverside County in 2001.