Did pesticide program kill off leopard frog population near Stampede grounds?

By Letter to the Editor on June 17, 2019.

I am a regular walker (20-plus years) on the trails around the Stampede grounds. Off the northeast corner of the grounds is Leinwebber Park and its little pond. The pond has a nice sign beside it telling about the protected leopard frogs. Every spring for years one would be greeted by the “frog song” of many happy leopard frogs calling each other, but 2016 was the last year we heard this sound! Coincidentally, it was in 2016 that the city started to use Rodenticide pumped into gopher holes in the drainage basin of the pond that the frogs stopped singing.

Did the city, through its continual use of chemicals to control problems, kill or contribute to the death of all the protected leopard frogs in the Leinwebber pond? The Rodenticide certainly was not worth the applications as the gophers have re-populated the park!

The use of natural controls for weeds and rodents should be fully explored before any chemicals are used. It has been shown that erecting poles with platforms on top, encourages predator birds to hunt in the area and there is definitely plenty of food for several hawk and owl families.

Robert Benn

Medicine Hat

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