Private Mississippi Estate Releases Nearly 500 Endangered Frogs After Two Decades of Habitat Restoration

More than two decades after Jim and Laura Currie began converting cleared timber and cattle pasture on their Hancock County estate into native longleaf-pine forest, they hosted the June 2026 release of almost 500 captive-reared dusky gopher frogs (Rana sevosa). The restoration, carried out with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, Wildlife Mississippi and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, reintroduced native grasses and reinstated prescribed burns, creating suitable habitat for gopher tortoises whose burrows are critical for the frogs’ survival.

Historically widespread across coastal longleaf pine forests from eastern Louisiana to lower Alabama, the species now survives in only one known breeding pond in De Soto National Forest. The released frogs were bred at the Memphis Zoo under a recovery plan coordinated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, and Wildlife Mississippi. The US Fish and Wildlife Service praised the project as evidence of the growing role private landowners can play in conserving endangered wildlife, while noting that the frogs remain at risk from poor weather, drought and chytrid disease. Monitoring will continue to determine whether a self-sustaining population can be established.