Indian Flats Campground Shut to Protect Endangered Species

The Indian Flats Campground here and 600 acres surrounding it have been closed until at least July to protect the arroyo southwestern toad and other endangered plants and animals.

The areas were made off limits to visitors April 1 and will remain closed until at least July 1 so the small, gray-green toad can breed in nearby streams, said Betty Hawkes, spokeswoman for Cleveland National Forest.

Biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will monitor Indian Flats through July 1 as the toads reproduce, Hawkes said this week. A remote section of Arroyo Seco Creek south of the Dripping Springs Campground near Temecula has also been closed, and rangers are considering temporary restrictions on target shooting in some forest areas in the Santa Ysabel area.

The closures were made in response to a lawsuit filed last June by the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, which claims that the U.S. Forest Service illegally rejected attempts by federal scientists to study how the arroyo toad and three dozen threatened species would be affected by cattle grazing, off-road vehicles and similar forest uses.

The arroyo southwestern toad was put on the federal endangered list in 1994.

Earlier this year, rangers fenced off several creeks elsewhere in the forest to prevent four-wheel-drive vehicles from smashing the amphibians and their eggs.