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Scientists are planning to kill thousands of bullfrogs next month as the federal government drains a major lake near Nogales to get rid of mercury contamination.

As Peña Blanca Lake empties, authorities plan to go after not only the bullfrogs living there, but bullfrogs living up to five miles away.

The reason: bullfrogs are a major competitor to native lowland frogs and Chiricahua leopard frogs. The native populations have been dwindling, in part because non-native bullfrogs not only eat leopard frog tadpoles but carry a fungal disease that can be deadly to leopard frogs.

But exact plans for the removal are uncertain and finances are up in the air.

Several biologists have submitted a request for a $40,000 state grant to pay trained professionals to do the work of removing 2,000 to 5,000 bullfrogs.

Peña Blanca Lake’s drainage is scheduled to start Oct. 6. It should take 30 to 40 days.

The lake will be closed to the public for some time afterward while authorities also dredge and remove hundreds of thousands of tons of mercury-tainted sediment from the lakebed. The mercury came from an old upstream gold mill.

Read more in Monday's Arizona Daily Star.