Forest Service Research & Development

The Stanislaus National Forest in California lies three hours from Sacramento or San Fransisco, and visitors will likely encounter winding highways and gravel roads on their journey there. But the destination is worth the trek. Highland lakes, towering pines, and peaks hewn from the same granite as El Capitan in Yosemite National Park — just to the forest’s south — await determined souls.

Formed a decade ago, the North American Bsal Task Force, which includes USDA Forest Service researchers, is helping to keep an infectious amphibian disease at bay. What the team is learning may also help do the same for other emerging wildlife diseases.