If you live in a marshy area, spring arrives with the pulse of throaty frog songs. In the traditions of many local tribes, frogs symbolize abundance, renewal, resilience, and wisdom. The Samish Indian Nation website’s Story Map on Oregon spotted frogs tell us that frogs – Wéxes – live between the worlds of land and water and serve as sacred messengers between the spiritual and human realms.

As indicator species, native frogs like the endangered Oregon spotted frog offer ecological knowledge. Their mating call, which sounds like the quiet tapping of a drum, speaks of connected wetlands where this native species thrives.

Oregon spotted frog with egg masses. Photo credit: Stephen Nyman

These frogs need clean, shallow, sunlit wetlands to breed – habitats that are rapidly disappearing. Once common in the Pacific Northwest, the Oregon spotted frog has now vanished from up to 90% of their historic range. This sensitive species is both federally-listed as threatened and state-listed as endangered. Wetland loss, invasive species, and climate change have left these amphibians teetering on the edge. Our river floodplains once featured lots of shallow wetland habitat for Oregon spotted frogs, but most of these areas have since been transformed to accommodate our human needs.

The arrival of invasive species such as the American bullfrog (native to the East Coast) has added to the problem, making it a frog-eat-frog world for Oregon spotted frogs since big bullfrogs often eat smaller frogs for breakfast. Meanwhile, invasive plants such as reed canary grass clog waterways and prevent frogs from moving between breeding and sheltering areas.

Oregon spotted frog rests by water's edge. Photo credit: Stephen Nyman

”Answering the call of threatened species like Oregon spotted frog is one of the great challenges of our time,” says Stephen Nyman, Lead Scientist for Whatcom County’s Amphibian Monitoring Program. “But there are reasons for realistic hope of averting the worst outcomes if we regard this as a call to action. Evidence-based conservation programs for amphibians will have to utilize a wide variety of tools, including protecting areas of high biodiversity (such as the upper Samish River); reducing threats by managing and restoring habitats; and controlling invasive bullfrogs.”

Skagit Land Trust plays a role in supporting Oregon spotted frog habitat. This spring, the Trust permanently protected a 26-acre property located in the headwater wetlands of the Samish River Watershed. Protecting headwater reaches is especially important because these upstream areas are essential to the entire watershed’s health.

A view of the new Conservation Area's wetland habitat.

This newly protected property is next to land where Oregon spotted frog egg masses have been documented by the Samish Indian Nation, WDFW, and other organizations. The area offers suitable wetland conditions for frogs and is a sanctuary for black bears, great blue herons, migratory birds such as trumpeter swans, and important native fish such as steelhead.

The permanent protection and planned restoration of this area is funded by a National Coastal Wetlands Grants Program, a private foundation grant, partner organizations, and you as a Skagit Land Trust member. Thank you so much for your support! You are helping protect not just frogs, but the entire wetland ecosystems that they – and we – depend on. Together, we can ensure that native frogs keep announcing spring for generations to come.

The Oregon spotted frog spends much of its life in water. Photo credit: Stephen Nyman