BULLFROGS TO BITE BULLETS IN EFFORT TO SAVE FISH.

Byline: Erik Nelson Staff Writer

Along the former gravel mine known as the Tujunga Wash, wildlife officials are set to intervene in a battle of species pitting the federally protected Santa Ana sucker and the fish's non-native predator, the bullfrog.

Plan A: Shoot the frogs. Or kill them another way.

On Wednesday, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials announced that within 30 days they would list the six-inch, thick-lipped algae-eating silver-bottomed fish as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Under a plan by Los Angeles County to create a wetland on 200 acres of the wash between the Foothill Freeway and Wentworth Street, officials will get rid of interloping plants and animals such as cowbirds, which will be trapped.

But the bullfrog situation could be much more desperate, with frog hit men slogging through the ponds, attempting to draw a bead on their deep-throated quarry.

``The methodology that's been approved is actually to shoot them,'' said Frank Woo, a civil engineer on the project. ``Then you scoop up the egg masses.''

Terminating the frogs with extreme prejudice might seem odd to some, even state wildlife officials.

``Sounds like an awful lot of bullets,'' said state Fish & Game Department spokesman Patrick Moore with a chuckle. ``We have a glut of bullfrogs in this state,'' and anyone with a fishing license ``can take as many as they want.''

Under state game regulations, amphibians are technically a fish.

But state fisheries biologist Dwayne Maxwell doesn't find anything funny about frog firing squads.

``That's one option. The other is a kind of spear gun kind of thing that uses elastic, or sometimes there's just a long, hand-held spear that frogs are jigged with,'' he said.

And Stephanie Boyles, a wildlife biologist for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said she didn't think ``sending a bunch of cowboys out to shoot these animals'' would be quite ethical, not to mention effective.

Even if the Terminator himself were to ambush the carpetbagging croakers, which lay up to 20,000 eggs at a time, he'd find himself saying ``I'll be back'' quite regularly.

``Besides physically removing them or drying up the habitat, it's pretty hard to get rid of them,'' Maxwell said.

And Bill Eick, president of the Shadow Hills Property Owners Association, said he understood the threat posed by bullfrogs, but wondered about the method for getting rid of them.

``It just sounds pretty inefficient to me, but I'm an attorney, not a biologist.''

Fish & Wildlife Service biologist Glen Knowles, who helped write the federal listing for the Santa Ana sucker, said that the bullfrog may not be the sucker's worst problem. Loss of habitat from diverting streams and installing concrete channels probably did more damage, but Knowles said he welcomes the bullfrog's eradication.

The frogs, he said, have been implicated in the loss of other fish species, and besides, the eastern frogs don't belong in Southern California.

``They eat everything,'' Knowles said. ``Small mammals, bats, birds, reptiles, fish, whatever they can find. They're pretty voracious predators.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map, box

Photo: (1 -- 2 -- color) BULLFROG, SANTA ANA SUCKER

Map: Habitat restoration area, between 210 Freeway and Wentworth Street.

Box: SUCKER FISH THREATENED

SOURCE: Daily News research, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Traci Wooden/Staff Artist