© 2004 Roger Hall

In the hills outside of Los Angeles, a fire burned for five weeks last fall, killing two firefighters, destroying 89 homes, and leaving an area about a quarter the size of Rhode Island scorched and smelling of ash.

Yet there are survivors in this charred wasteland -- ground squirrels, crows, and to the great surprise of biologists who found them nestled in one rocky creek just outside the burn area, a population of frogs thought to be nearly extinct in Southern California 

They're members of a species known as the California red-legged frog. About the size of a child's baseball glove, with powerful crimson-dappled legs and bulging black-and-yellow eyes, they are the largest frog species west of the Mississippi.

But having narrowly escaped the flames, as well as human development and a disease that has pushed them to the very brink of existence, this endangered frog lies in the path of yet another life-threatening hazard -- the coming rains. The post-fire, poorly vegetated landscape is prone to flooding, which could signal the end for the lonely red-legged frog. 

Life wasn't always so precarious. The pools and creeks in these parts once teemed with red-legged frogs; during California's gold rush, they were a staple of the gold miner's diet: frog leg stew, grilled frog legs, frog leg fricassee. They even starred in Mark Twain's short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."

But unfortunately for the frogs, the foothills and canyons of coastal California are where people want to live, too.

As development boomed during the second part of the 20th century, the red-legged frog population dropped by 90 percent. By 2003, scientists knew of only about 40 left in the entire southern part of their range, which stretches from Los Angeles County south to Baja. Biologists have been looking for other populations in this region for the past 10 years but have come up empty handed -- until what's known as the Station Fire subsided in early September. 

Soon after it burned out, a team from the U.S. Geological Survey went in to assess the ecological damage. While following the course of a small creek, the biologists stumbled on a series of small pools in the Angeles National Forest teeming with red-legged frogs.

"It is really exciting," says Adam Backlin, a USGS biologist who has been monitoring the newfound population, which could number as many as 300. "This population may have a lot of genetic diversity that has been lost elsewhere." 

The discovery represents a rare piece of good news for amphibians as a whole. "Pretty much anywhere there are frogs, we've been documenting the decline and disappearance of species," says Dr. Vance Vredenburg, an assistant professor of biology at the University of California San Francisco.

So Vredenburg is rooting for these survivors. "A lot of projects have shown that if we give them the opportunity, they will come back. And these frogs are hanging on in that area. That gives me some hope that they can expand from this spot."

Although the fires are behind them for this season, heavy rains pose another challenge. Rain falling on a scorched landscape gathers dirt, rocks and debris from the naked hillsides and mixes them into a cement-like slurry that can cover several football fields.

These mudslides race down canyons and basins at up to 35 miles per hour, leveling everything in their path. The Angeles Forest frogs wouldn't stand a chance.

So Backlin, the USGS biologist, and several state and federal wildlife agencies have been looking into potential rescue operations.

"We would normally not advocate removing animals from the wild," Backlin says. "But they're so rare, so fragmented, and the populations are so small. If we want them to persist, they need to be managed a little more aggressively."

Officials considered temporarily relocating the frogs to zoos in Los Angeles or San Diego. Unfortunately, neither zoo can spare the extra money or staff to care for them. What's more, some of the frogs have tested positive for a fungus called chytrid that is killing off amphibians around the world.

Even though many frogs survive the disease and others seem resistant to infection, the stress of captivity can leave frogs more vulnerable to the effects of the fungus. Zoo officials fear that adopting the Angeles Forest frogs could introduce chytrid into their healthy populations.

Another option would be moving the frogs into similar habitat nearby that hasn't burned. But there aren't many suitable locations, and because the red-legged frog is listed as "threatened" under wildlife regulations, a litany of requirements must be satisfied before the survivors could be relocated -- even if that move is necessary to get them out of harm's way.

"Fortunately, we haven't gotten a big rain out there yet," Backlin says, "but I don't know if they'll make it through the whole year."

Meteorologists with the AccuWeather forecasting service predict an above-normal rainy season for southern California this winter, due to a strengthening El Nino. And forecasts call for heavy rains to drench much of the Angeles National Forest as early as Monday, with downpours much of the week.

For the red-legged frog, that could be a forecast for extinction.