A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the protected status of 1.8 million acres of critical California mountain habitat for the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs and the mountain yellow-legged frogs, species that have declined by 90 percent, and Yosemite toads. In 2017, a year after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the land as protected under the Endangered Species Act, the California Cattlemen’s Association challenged the decision. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden stated the group had failed to establish that any of its members suffered injury from the designation.

This article appears in the June 2019 issue of Natural Awakenings.