Register now for our 2024 Oregon Spotted Frog Tadpole Identification Workshop! This virtual training workshop will enable environmental professionals to accurately identify and distinguish tadpoles, metamorphs and juveniles of Lower Mainland frog species caught during work in and around waterways, ditches, or wetlands. This is an important professional development opportunity for environmental monitors to ensure due diligence and accuracy in amphibian identification.

Environmental professionals, contractors, or government staff – if you will be working in the Lower Mainland you may encounter species at risk including Oregon Spotted Frogs and Northern Red-legged Frogs. Tadpoles can be challenging to identify, especially when differentiating between these two species. This workshop will outline how you can identify frog tadpoles in the Lower Mainland, including which features can help you distinguish between the very similar-looking tadpoles, metamorphs and juveniles of Rana pretiosa and Rana aurora.

This training will be provided by Jenn Barden, Program Coordinator at the Fraser Valley Conservancy, and Briar Hunter, Ecosystem Biologist with the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. Both are specialists in Oregon Spotted Frogs and have extensive amphibian and reptile experience.

Date: June 20, 2024

Time: 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm PDT

Platform: Online via Zoom

Cost: $25 per person

Access: Participants who pay to attend will receive a link to a recording of the presentation. Those who are unable to attend can still receive a recording by registering.

After the workshop participants will receive a new resource document that can be used to identify Oregon Spotted Frog and Northern Red-legged Frog tadpoles, metamorphs and juveniles in the field!

Once registered, you will receive an email with session details and a meeting link will be sent out a week before the event.

REGISTER NOW

Additional Information

This session is intended for environmental professionals including environmental monitors, municipal staff, and decision-makers who may come into contact with Oregon Spotted Frog and its habitat. The Oregon Spotted Frog is highly Endangered (provincially and federally). Within Canada, it is only known to occur in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. It lives in water year-round and is found in a variety of agricultural ditches, sloughs, shallow wetlands, and marshes. In the past decade, two new populations of Oregon Spotted Frog have been discovered in Abbotsford and Chilliwack, suggesting there are more potential areas where this endangered frog may be undiscovered. Oregon Spotted Frogs are most likely to be encountered during regular drainage maintenance works; however, few environmental monitors are trained in the identification of this cryptic species, particularly for tadpoles and juveniles.

For questions, please contact Jenn: jenn@fraservalleyconservancy.ca

This training is made possible thanks to funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada.