Do Sharp Park Golf Course operations harm endangered species?
It is abundantly clear that the existing configuration, operation, and maintenance of the golf course is harming both the endangered San Francisco garter snake and the threatened California red-legged frog, and has been doing so since the golf course was constructed. The earliest biological surveys of Sharp Park occurred in the mid-1940s. Dr. Wade Fox found a dead San Francisco garter snake at that time, and in his field journal noted that the snake was “probably killed by golfers—they probably die frequently in this manner.” Subsequent surveys for the snake found a population decline in the 1970s and 1980s, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that the San Francisco garter snake shown below was killed by a lawn mower at Sharp Park in 2005. California red-legged frogs have been killed on a nearly annual basis at Sharp Park since at least 1992. Every year when the winter rains come, California red-legged frogs breed, lay eggs, and attach them to aquatic vegetation at Sharp P
