For more than 20 years, Jim and Laura Currie burned and replanted their Mississippi land

Sometimes, giving wildlife a chance to survive begins with something as simple as opening up your own land to nature. For Jim and Laura Currie, a couple in Mississippi, it was just that.

In more than two decades of working with biologists to restore their privately owned land, they have now helped create a home for an increasingly rare animal. The Mississippi gopher frog is listed as Endangered under the US Endangered Species Act and Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

Nearly 500 dusky gopher frogs have been released on their property to help protect this rare amphibian in the United States.According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the release took place in June 2026 at Woodland Cottage, the Curries' property in Hancock County, Mississippi, as reported on July 29, 2026. The frogs were bred in captivity by the Memphis Zoo before being released into ponds across the restored land.