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Conservationist Donates “Mike’s Pond” Property To The Nature Conservancy

292 acres of habitat critical to the survival of the Mississippi gopher frog protected

VANCLEAVE, MS — December 4, 2007 — Thanks to a generous donor a property previously slated for development has been saved for the globally endangered Mississippi gopher frog. M.C. Davis, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and devoted conservationist from the Florida panhandle, purchased the property known as “Mike’s Pond”, to ensure that it could be managed for this species now on the brink of extinction. Davis, who has donated other tracts to The Nature Conservancy in the past, recently donated the property to The Nature Conservancy, which has been working with the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and Davis to manage the site by conducting prescribed burns on the property.

Robbie Fisher, state director of The Nature Conservancy in Mississippi, commended the donation of Mr. Davis, saying “individuals like M.C. Davis, who step in and protect important habitat for a species in peril such as the Mississippi gopher frog, play a vital role in conservation. Mr. Davis' generosity in donating the Mike's Pond property to The Nature Conservancy will ensure that ecologically sound management practices will be applied on the 292 acre property , which in turn will facilitate long-term conservation of gopher frogs and gopher tortoises on the site." The property will be managed by the Conservancy through periodic burns and removal of cogongrass, an invasive exotic plant which threatens native plant communities and the animal species dependent upon them, which include the gopher frog and gopher tortoise. Burning is essential to maintenance of open upland habitat important to both of these species, and to maintenance of open, grassy, relatively treeless ephemeral ponds essential to breeding of gopher frogs. Fire exclusion and the absence of appropriately timed fire are the most important factors responsible for the habitat deterioration which has resulted in the decline of these species in Mississippi.

Prior to 2004, the only known remaining population of the globally endangered species Rana sevosa, commonly known as the Mississippi gopher frog, occurred in the vicinity of a pond known as Glen’s Pond on Forest Service property in Harrison County. The Mississippi gopher frog was listed as endangered by the State of Mississippi in 1992 and by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2001. Historically the frog ranged across parts of southwestern Alabama, southern Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana. Other related species of gopher frogs occur more broadly across the southeast.

Scientists have been scouring the landscape of south Mississippi in recent years in hopes of finding more breeding populations. In 2003 Mike Sisson was hired by the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science to monitor the Glen’s Pond population and to search for other pools still used or restorable for use by this species. Sisson discovered a small population of gopher frogs at the Mike’s Pond site in 2004. During the same spring, Tom Mann, Natural Heritage Program zoologist at the Museum, established a volunteer network to listen for breeding frogs at some of the other sites regarded by Sisson as holding the most promise. Within weeks of the organization of this network, volunteer Lynn McCoy, an employee of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, recorded the call of a male gopher frog at a pool on 16th Section land near Hurley, in Jackson County, Mississippi. The recorded call was confirmed as that of the gopher frog by experts on the frog, including Mann, Sisson, Linda LaClaire of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Dr. Bob Jones of the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, and Glen Johnson, who discovered the Glen’s Pond population in 1987 and  is a retired employee of the U.S. Forest Service.

The Nature Conservancy also owns another coastal property in Jackson County which has ephemeral ponds. Though this property is not known to have supported the frog historically, it is not unlikely that it did prior to site conversion to a dense pine plantation. The site is being restored to an open pine savannah by the Conservancy. Biologists within the Gopher Frog Recovery Group agreed that one of the ponds would be a good candidate for establishment of another gopher frog population. In 2004 tadpoles and young frogs were transferred from Glen’s Pond to the Conservancy pond by Sisson in an attempt to establish a new population. Additional transfers were made in 2005. Recently, biologist Josh Cook of the Gulf Coast Research lab recorded a gopher frog calling at this site, an identification confirmed by all of those involved in the  identification of the McCoy’s Pond vocalist. Subsequently one gopher frog egg mass was observed.

For more information on the Mississippi Gopher frog, contact Linda LaClaire at (601) 321-1126 or Tom Mann at (601) 354-6367, ext. 116.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.