Land use changes since European settlers arrived in the Fraser Valley have resulted in the elimination of seasonal marshes and shallow wetlands in the Fraser Valley, with remnant populations of frogs squeezed into agricultural ditches or deeper pools and channels.

The Oregon Spotted Frog is associated with medium to large wetlands, which are shallow, slow moving, and warm. These wetlands also typically have a portion that is permanently wetted and have an abundance of native grasses, sedges, or rushes.

Within these wetlands, a diversity of microhabitats is required depending on life stage, season, and weather conditions. For example, breeding sites tend to be seasonally flooded areas along sun‐exposed sloping benches. Stable water levels are critical for survival of eggs and tadpoles. Fluctuations in water levels can result in leaving the young dry and exposed. Adults are known to take refuge in deep pools during dry periods and burrow into soil or mud along wetland edges, and hide in beaver dams and lodges during cold periods.

Efforts to enhance and restore wetlands occupied by the Oregon Spotted Frog have a positive impact on aquatic plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate populations that live in or visit the wetlands, and benefit other species at risk such as Red-legged Frog, American Bittern, Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, the Salish Sucker, and the Pacific Water Shrew.

As wetlands and floodplains were eliminated, connections between watersheds and waterways were lost, trapping the aquatic Oregon Spotted Frogs into linear stream systems that may not be able to sustain a population due to lack of permanent water, unsuitable habitat features, or too few frogs to maintain genetic integrity and survive environmental pressures. Some, however, have survived in these modified ecosystems, and it seems that with some careful planning, and a better understanding of the frogs’ needs and sensitivities, these frogs can survive (and maybe even thrive) in a shared-use agricultural landscape.

We believe that more populations may be out there – but they are hard to find! The most likely people to find new populations are environmental technicians and monitors working with farmers, municipalities and developers in stream channels. Two of the six known populations were found as recently as 2014, both by technicians who were working on fish research and ecological monitoring. By educating field technicians and frog-catching kids, we hope to identify more populations in the Fraser Valley, and improve our understanding of how people and frogs can coexist on the same landscape.