Abused Mori Point leaps back to life

The red-legged frog sat motionless amid tangled vegetation in a wetland area below the spectacular cliffs of Mori Point, just a short walk from a beach in Pacifica where bootlegging and a notorious gunbattle once raged.

The federally threatened frog has survived on this sweeping promontory of cliffs, bluffs and wetlands despite almost constant human disruption over the years, including dredging, development and off-road vehicles, not to mention booze and gunfire.

What's remarkable is that the California red-legged frog isn't the only rare specimen at Mori Point, a 110-acre stretch of headlands that officially became part of the National Park Service's Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 2002.