Path cleared for frogs

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has cleared a path under Highway 70 in Butte County for the foothill yellow-legged frog.

While assessing passage issues for fish and amphibians, a team assembled by the Rock Creek-Cresta Ecological Resources Committee—a group chaired by PG&E with representatives from state and federal agencies—noticed that a drain pipe running under the highway was too high for the yellow-legged frog to reach, according to a PG&E press release. In the beginning of May, crews built a ramp out of cobble-boulders to allow frogs easy access to the culvert and the tributaries beyond.

The project was completed in time for mating season, when frogs leave tributaries to lay eggs along the North Fork of the Feather River. They will return shortly after breeding in favor of the cool, shaded waters of the tributaries.