Bullfrog Project
A finished book.
This book charts the intentional introduction of bullfrogs to the American West, using cutting-edge archival research, historic biological surveys, and government documents to describe the extent of the introduction. This never-before-seen compilation of sources gives readers a clear view of this unusual environmental reorganization, which continues to have ripple effects to this day. Those ripple effects, which include species declines and bullfrog eradication efforts, are widespread, necessitating a critical understanding of those practices.
I show how and why bullfrogs were introduced to the West, what effects that had, why people currently remove them, and why those removal efforts are short-sighted and will never be successful. Large-scale environmental changes affect the entire continent, and removing bullfrogs from small protected areas is a losing conservation strategy in the long term. A more muscular, robust understanding and relationship with the environment better equips the public, researchers, and professional conservationists with a different perspective on environmental change, and what really ought to change if restoration or conservation are to be successful.