https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/us/politics/supreme-court-considers-a-raucous-party-and-an-endangered-frog.html
The frog has been listed as an endangered species since 2001, when the known adult population was about 100, all from a single pond in Mississippi.
The Fish and Wildlife Service delayed specifying the protected habitat for several years, but when it did, it concluded that designating land in Mississippi alone wasn’t sufficient for conserving the species.
The service also chose to include in its designation a 1,500-acre tract of private land in Louisiana 50 miles away that it said contained a unique collection of ponds that could serve as a breeding ground for the frogs if a population were transported there. The frogs were known to live in the area as late as 1965.
Weyerhaeuser Co. , which brought the case to the Supreme Court, owns part of the land at issue and leases the rest to grow and harvest timber. The company and other landowners have been exploring using the area for residential and commercial development.
The government’s critical habitat designation didn’t automatically shut down the owners’ development plans for the land, but it could, which would mean $34 million in lost development value, according to a Fish and Wildlife Service estimate.