A Home for Frogs

Frogs may seem small and insignificant, yet they have survived on this planet for 250 million years. They are beautiful, wonderful, and diverse creatures, also known as an “indicator species,” because they are the first to be affected by impacts on our environment, their health is an indicator of our own human health.  Sadly, over the past several decades, dozens of amphibian species around the world have disappeared, and others are becoming harder and harder to find.

Here in arid Utah, Columbia Spotted Frog populations, listed as a “sensitive species,” once plentiful along the Provo River corridor, have been declining dramatically since the 1990s. Development of their wetland habitats, climate change, and more recently a fungus that is further threatening their species.

For decades, Robert Redford advocated for the protection of the Provo River Watershed, and in 2003, the North Fork Preservation Alliance, Utah Open Lands, and The Nature Conservancy purchased 17 acres of vital spotted frog habitat along the Upper Provo River. The land was being eyed for development, but the coalition's persistence was successful after educating landowners, anglers, and adjacent communities about rivers, and wetlands as mighty as the Provo River, are vital to the economic, ecological, and cultural health of the region.