Pony Ranch Pond, a new home for the dusky gopher frog, is monitored by the National Forests in Mississippi and several cooperators. (Western Carolina University photo/ John A. Tupy)

To most people, the sound heard near Pony Ranch Pond could easily be mistaken as snoring. To local conservation professionals, however, it was more like a song, signifying hope and celebrating a small victory for the nearly extinct dusky gopher frog.

In February, National Forests in Mississippi staff, researchers and volunteers discovered and documented six dusky gopher frogs at the De Soto National Forest pond. One frog, a 5-year-old female, had travelled nearly a mile from nearby Glen’s Pond – until then the only known site where the endangered amphibians live and breed. Read more »

Harper’s beauty is a perennial lily with a solitary yellow flower and iris-like leaves and is listed as federally endangered (U.S. Forest Service photo)

The first week of March found a team of plant biologists down on their knees in a highway right-of-way in the Florida Panhandle searching for Harper’s beauty, one of Florida’s rarest native plants. Read more »

This Hawaiian mintless mint (Haplostachys haplostachya) was once found on the islands of Kaua`i, Maui, and Hawai`i. It is now listed as a federally endangered species and is currently found only within the U.S. Department of Defense's Pohakuloa Training Area on the island of Hawai`i. With the help of new remote sensing techniques developed by USDA Forest Service's Dr. Susan Cordell and her team, research scientists hope to find ways to restore and protect this and other threatened species on the Hawaiian Islands. (Photo: Amanda Uowolo, Forest Service)

A Forest Service research team has received a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program to begin research using sophisticated topographic models to identify areas within dry forests that have the most potential for ecological restoration. Read more »