One Emotional Intern vs. Several Invasive Species

    On my most recent field day, my crew lead Martha and I drove to Kelly Warm Springs to kill bullfrog eggs.

    Bullfrogs are an invasive species known to be very large, mobile, and disruptive of natural ecosystems (they eat anything they can swallow, even birds). The length of a tadpole can span from my wrist to my fingertips.

    Kelly Warm Springs is a small, naturally occurring spring at the southeastern edge of the park that feeds into the Snake River. Steam curled across its surface from the cool early morning as we pulled into a small dirt parking lot across from it to unload our gear.

My field equipment:

1. Waders

2. Sun shirt

3. Mesh butterfly net

4. Sunglasses

    Armed to the teeth (and ogled by several curious tourists), Martha and I pushed through the grass and began making our way around the pond before wading into the water.

    The water is crystal clear, and not as warm as I’d thought, but I guess Kelly Tepid Springs doesn’t sound as nice.

    Kelly Slightly Warmer Than Cold Springs is deeper than it looks. The bottom of the pond is composed of soft mud, silt, and decomposing matter that bubbled gently, giving it a mild sulfur stench. At one point, I sank down to mid-shin and remembered the quicksand scene from The Princess Bride in a panic.

    Bullfrogs lay eggs in jelly-like masses. The procedure for killing bullfrog eggs is to scoop them out of the water and leave them on the bank, where they will eventually dry out and die.

    I started feeling a bit uneasy after learning this information, but I told myself that it was for the good of the whole; eradicating bullfrogs means a healthier natural ecosystem.

    Then I caught my first bullfrog tadpole.

    “What do I do with it?” I called out to Martha, who was around the bend and partially hidden in the vegetation.

    “You can put it on the bank,” she replied.

    I watched the tadpole wiggle in my net and imagined how it would feel to asphyxiate in a slow, excruciating death.

    Martha found me standing in the same place a little while later.

    “Are you okay?” She asked.

    “Is there a quicker way for them to die?” I said. I had lowered my net back into the water. I wasn’t crying but felt like I might if I thought too hard about the tadpole swimming around and around in the shallow water in my net.

    “You don’t have to do anything you aren’t comfortable with,” Martha said.

    In school, I learned about natural ecosystems and the impacts of invasive species. Every paper or textbook I read relayed information in an impersonal way, which became my adopted mindset. The only way to eradicate invasive species is to kill them. I understood and supported those decisions, but I was detached from the reality of doing it.

    It’s suddenly much more real when I’m the one doing the killing.

    I know the impacts if I left the bullfrog population alone – in fact, all of the fish species in Kelly Not Hot Springs were introduced by humans (there was a huge spike in introduced goldfish after the first annual Jackson Fair). Since Kelly Lukewarm Springs is not an isolated body of water, it is likely that these non-native populations can spread to other water bodies in the park. But I can’t help but think of the poem by Rudy Francisco, about choosing to take a spider outside rather than killing it: 

    “If I am ever caught in the wrong place at the wrong time […] I hope I am greeted with the same kind of mercy.”

    I have taken a long time to think about most of my morals, and how I would react in certain situations. With this job, however, I did not consider that life and death are in my hands, so I will have to do some thinking.

    We ended up not finding any eggs. Too early in the season, Martha thinks. For selfish reasons, I am relieved. For the part of me that wants to study and restore natural ecosystems, I am disappointed. We saw many tadpoles and a few frog heads sticking out of the water, though. It looks like the bullfrog population is, unfortunately, alive and well, and I will most likely be returning here frequently this summer.

If you’re interested in more bullfrog and Kelly Warm Springs information here are some links:

https://buckrail.com/explainer-tropical-fish-in-kelly-warm-springs/

https://www.nps.gov/places/000/kelly-warm-spring.htm

https://www.nps.gov/grte/learn/nature/upload/Spread_report_ASepulveda_23-Dec-15-access.pdf