The Chiricahua leopard frog, a five-inch, spotted amphibian of the American Southwest and northern Mexico, is poised to receive 11,467 acres of protected critical habitat -- a few crucial wet areas, in a dry region, where the frog's survival will be a high priority.

Unfortunately, the government has omitted from its critical habitat proposal some of the homes of Chiricahua leopard frogs in the vicinity of a gargantuan, proposed open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains of southern Arizona.The Center for Biological Diversity first filed a scientific petition to protect the Chiricahua leopard frog and its habitat in 1998. This petition documented the species' widespread declines in response to habitat destruction from urbanization, livestock grazing and other factors, as well as non-native species like bullfrogs and bass. Since then the threats to this beautiful amphibian have increased.