NPS aquatic ecologists and researchers collect endangered mountain yellow-legged tadpoles in the wilderness of Kings Canyon National Park for zoo-based captive rearing and immunization/NPS file

Sequoia Parks Conservancy, the official nonprofit partner to Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, has received a $250,000 grant from The Dorrance Family Foundation for use in helping with recovery of endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs in the two parks.

Mountain yellow-legged frogs have been part of a flagship research and restoration program due to populations being affected by non-native trout and infected with the disease (chytridiomycosis), which is decimating frog populations worldwide. It has long been the goal of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon aquatic restoration team to help save these frogs from going locally extinct.

Money from the grant will be used to increase frog resiliency to invasive species and climate change, restore critical habitat, reestablish lost populations of mountain yellow-legged frogs, augment vulnerable populations, and support the partnership with captive rearing programs at the Oakland Zoo and San Francisco Zoo.

"The National Park Service is grateful for the support provided by The Dorrance Family Foundation," said Woody Smeck, superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. "The grant will enable us to recover critical habitat for endangered species that are dependent on fragile, high elevation lakes and wetlands."

The award is part of the foundation’s Animals of the Sierra Nevada Grant Program, which provides support for high-performing nonprofits demonstrating effectiveness and expertise in the preservation, protection, and recovery of imperiled and at-risk wildlife of the Sierra Nevada.