- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Advisory Board
- Contributors
- Preface
- One Diverse Phenomena Influencing Amphibian Population Declines
- Two Why Are Some Species in Decline but Others Not?
- Three Philosophy, Value Judgments, and Declining Amphibians
- Four Embracing Human Diversity in Conservation
- Five Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force
- Six Meeting the Challenge of Amphibian Declines with an Interdisciplinary Research Program
- Seven Biology of Amphibian Declines
- Eight Declines of Eastern North American Woodland Salamanders (<i>Plethodon</i>)
- Nine Decline of Northern Cricket Frogs (<i>Acris crepitans</i>)
- Ten Overwintering in Northern Cricket Frogs (<i>Acris crepitans</i>)
- Eleven Repercussions of Global Change
- Twelve Lessons from Europe
- Thirteen Risk Factors and Declines in Northern Cricket Frogs (<i>Acris crepitans</i>)
- Fourteen Ultraviolet Radiation
- Fifteen Xenobiotics
- Sixteen Variation in Pesticide Tolerance
- Seventeen Lucké Renal Adenocarcinoma
- Eighteen Malformed Frogs in Minnesota: History and Interspecific Differences
- Nineteen Parasites of North American Frogs
- Twenty Parasite Infection and Limb Malformations: A Growing Problem in Amphibian Conservation
- Twenty-One Pine Silviculture
- Twenty-Two Commercial Trade
- Twenty-Three Houston Toads and Texas Politics
- Twenty-Four Amphibian Conservation Needs
- Twenty-Five Amphibian Population Cycles and Long-Term Data Sets
- Twenty-Six Landscape Ecology
- Twenty-Seven Conservation of Texas Spring and Cave Salamanders (<i>Eurycea</i>)
- Twenty-Eight Lessons from the Tropics
- Twenty-Nine Taxonomy and Amphibian Declines
- Thirty Conservation Systematics: The <i>Bufo boreas</i> Species Group
- Thirty-One Factors Limiting the Recovery of Boreal Toads (<i>Bufo b. boreas</i>)
- Thirty-Two Southwestern Desert Bufonids
- Thirty-Three Amphibian Ecotoxicology
- Thirty-Four Museum Collections
- Thirty-Five Critical Areas
- Thirty-Six Creating Habitat Reserves for Migratory Salamanders
- Thirty-Seven Population Manipulations
- Thirty-Eight Exotic Species
- Thirty-Nine Protecting Amphibians While Restoring Fish Populations
- Forty Reflections Upon Amphibian Conservation
- Forty-One Distribution of South Dakota Anurans
- Forty-Two Nebraska’s Declining Amphibians
- Forty-Three Museum Collections Can Assess Population Trends
- Forty-Four Monitoring Salamander Populations in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- Forty-Five North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP)
- Forty-Six Evaluating Calling Surveys
- Forty-Seven Geographical Information Systems and Survey Designs
- Forty-Eight Impacts of Forest Management on Amphibians
- Forty-Nine Monitoring Pigment Pattern Morphs of Northern Leopard Frogs
- Fifty The National Amphibian Conservation Center
- Fifty-One <i>A Thousand Friends of Frogs:</i> Its Origins
- Fifty-Two Of Men and Deformed Frogs: A Journalist’s Lament
- Introduction
- Anura
- Caudata
- EPILOGUE: Factors Implicated in Amphibian Population Declines in the United States
- Conclusion
- Literature Cited
- Index
Houston Toads and Texas Politics
Houston Toads and Texas Politics
- Chapter:
- (p.150) Twenty-Three Houston Toads and Texas Politics
- Source:
- Amphibian Declines
- Author(s):
Lauren E. Brown
Ann Mesrobian
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
A number of species of amphibians have long been recognized as sliding toward extinction. For example, Houston toads (Bufo houstonensis) were first thought to be nearing extinction forty years ago, in 1962. There is evidence that humans began to effect their decline over a half century ago (in the late 1940s), and research began on the trend toward extinction in 1965. These events occurred long before the recent media hype about amphibian population declines. This chapter reviews the relevant biology of Houston toads and discusses some of the major political interactions concerning the species. It seems almost axiomatic that endangered species become involved in political entanglements, and Houston toads are no exception. Political adversaries of Houston toads have included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, politicians in Texas and Washington, real estate developers and other moneyed interests, and human population growth. This chapter presents accounts of the major battles in which Houston toads played a central role.
Keywords: Houston toads, Bufo houstonensis, amphibians, population declines, Texas, politics, extinction, biology, endangered species, human population growth
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Advisory Board
- Contributors
- Preface
- One Diverse Phenomena Influencing Amphibian Population Declines
- Two Why Are Some Species in Decline but Others Not?
- Three Philosophy, Value Judgments, and Declining Amphibians
- Four Embracing Human Diversity in Conservation
- Five Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force
- Six Meeting the Challenge of Amphibian Declines with an Interdisciplinary Research Program
- Seven Biology of Amphibian Declines
- Eight Declines of Eastern North American Woodland Salamanders (<i>Plethodon</i>)
- Nine Decline of Northern Cricket Frogs (<i>Acris crepitans</i>)
- Ten Overwintering in Northern Cricket Frogs (<i>Acris crepitans</i>)
- Eleven Repercussions of Global Change
- Twelve Lessons from Europe
- Thirteen Risk Factors and Declines in Northern Cricket Frogs (<i>Acris crepitans</i>)
- Fourteen Ultraviolet Radiation
- Fifteen Xenobiotics
- Sixteen Variation in Pesticide Tolerance
- Seventeen Lucké Renal Adenocarcinoma
- Eighteen Malformed Frogs in Minnesota: History and Interspecific Differences
- Nineteen Parasites of North American Frogs
- Twenty Parasite Infection and Limb Malformations: A Growing Problem in Amphibian Conservation
- Twenty-One Pine Silviculture
- Twenty-Two Commercial Trade
- Twenty-Three Houston Toads and Texas Politics
- Twenty-Four Amphibian Conservation Needs
- Twenty-Five Amphibian Population Cycles and Long-Term Data Sets
- Twenty-Six Landscape Ecology
- Twenty-Seven Conservation of Texas Spring and Cave Salamanders (<i>Eurycea</i>)
- Twenty-Eight Lessons from the Tropics
- Twenty-Nine Taxonomy and Amphibian Declines
- Thirty Conservation Systematics: The <i>Bufo boreas</i> Species Group
- Thirty-One Factors Limiting the Recovery of Boreal Toads (<i>Bufo b. boreas</i>)
- Thirty-Two Southwestern Desert Bufonids
- Thirty-Three Amphibian Ecotoxicology
- Thirty-Four Museum Collections
- Thirty-Five Critical Areas
- Thirty-Six Creating Habitat Reserves for Migratory Salamanders
- Thirty-Seven Population Manipulations
- Thirty-Eight Exotic Species
- Thirty-Nine Protecting Amphibians While Restoring Fish Populations
- Forty Reflections Upon Amphibian Conservation
- Forty-One Distribution of South Dakota Anurans
- Forty-Two Nebraska’s Declining Amphibians
- Forty-Three Museum Collections Can Assess Population Trends
- Forty-Four Monitoring Salamander Populations in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- Forty-Five North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP)
- Forty-Six Evaluating Calling Surveys
- Forty-Seven Geographical Information Systems and Survey Designs
- Forty-Eight Impacts of Forest Management on Amphibians
- Forty-Nine Monitoring Pigment Pattern Morphs of Northern Leopard Frogs
- Fifty The National Amphibian Conservation Center
- Fifty-One <i>A Thousand Friends of Frogs:</i> Its Origins
- Fifty-Two Of Men and Deformed Frogs: A Journalist’s Lament
- Introduction
- Anura
- Caudata
- EPILOGUE: Factors Implicated in Amphibian Population Declines in the United States
- Conclusion
- Literature Cited
- Index
