“Toad!” yelled a deep voice from across the stream. With gloved hands, the volunteer excitedly lifted an adult toad from the riverbank then carefully slipped it into a clear sandwich bag. He was one of several volunteers who had spent their morning trudging through greenery and slogging through mud while looking for just this toad.

Those nearby cautiously waded through the murky water in their tall muck boots to see the toad. Utah’s Hogle Zoo staff members retrieved their field kit to document, as they proceeded to weigh the amphibian with a spring scale and scan it for a Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tag, similar to microchips in pets.

The group watched as zoo staff took a photo, carefully inserted a PIT tag under the toad’s moist skin, then returned it where it was discovered. Zoo staff next recorded GPS coordinates and measured the distance from where the toad was found to the nearest body of water. Now that the processing of this toad was complete, zoo staff and volunteers moved on to continue counting and processing western toads along the stream as they approached Strawberry Reservoir.

Hogle Zoo, Sageland Collaborative, and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources staff, and volunteers were all on hand to search for western toads at Strawberry Reservoir on the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, about 79 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

The volunteers, all trained by Hogle Zoo to become “community scientists”, play a key role in freeing up Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and Forest Service biologists to focus their efforts on western toad populations located elsewhere or on other native aquatic species like fish and mollusks.

“Having knowledge of indicator species is important to understand ecosystems,” said Zoe Hull, one of those volunteers trained to become a community scientist. “Researching species like toads, salamanders, and other types of amphibians will give us a better understanding of how what we do affects the world around us.”

Another volunteer, Addison Bahtishi, said that surveying seemed like a fun way to get hands-on experience and see western toads in the wild while helping with conservation.

Forest Service provides the forest, Hogle Zoo brings the toads!

Hogle Zoo operates a western toad breeding program to help boost toad populations in Utah. This involves matchmaking, hatching, and the eventual release of offspring to help recover at-risk populations within Utah.

Hogle Zoo designed its facilities to mimic the natural toad habitat and acquired a specialized incubator that triggers brumation, a state of dormancy like hibernation. After the toads come out of brumation, staff prepare them for breeding. Males and females, previously kept in separate areas, are paired up according to several criteria, one being genetic compatibility. Captive propagation programs manage pairings of breeding individuals to try to retain as much genetic variability as possible in a population.

“This is important for their survival because toads that possess a wide variety of traits within a population will adapt to changing environments and disease better and become more resilient overall,” explained Meredith Fox, Hogle Zoo herpetology supervisor.

After these toadlets that result from the breeding toads are released, often on National Forest System land, staff from Hogle Zoo, the Forest Service, Sageland Collaborative and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, along with volunteer scientists, conduct surveys at the release sites to monitor the toadlets.

“We have important areas designated by regional biologists that are regularly monitored,” said Alyssa Hoekstra, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources native herpetology coordinator. “It’s important to see if we can find new habitats, previously unknown populations, or even support biologists with monitoring already known populations.”

Toad ya about the environment

Surveys, like the one at Strawberry Reservoir, offer insight into the health of western toad populations as well as our environment.

According to NatureServe Explorer, the western toad can be found in a variety of habitats across Western North America and is officially listed as “Apparently Secure” across its entire geographic range. However, some populations of this species, especially those occurring in high-altitude wetlands, have declined significantly. The western toad is considered “Critically Imperiled” in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming and “Vulnerable” in Utah, where it is listed by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources as a “Species of Greatest Conservation Need.”

It is essential to monitor and protect western toads as they serve an important purpose to the Forest Service and its partners.

Keilani Fang, Hogle Zoo’s Field Conservation Programs coordinator, explained that Western Toads, like other amphibians, act as “environmental indicators”, meaning their health and population size show how well an ecosystem is doing.

“When pollutants or disturbances to western toad habitats’ occur, and their populations start to decline, this indicates that something is going on in the environment that may need to be addressed,” she said.

These toads are like canaries in the coal mine, in that the kinds of environmental disturbances that affect the western toad may also harm other species. Mary Pendergast, ecologist and conservation biologist at Sageland Collaborative, explained that western toads also serve as indicators for water quality, quantity and the health of the ecosystem. Due to their mucosal membrane, a thin layer of skin that protects the toad’s body from germs and dirt, they’re some of the first organisms to respond to disturbances in our watershed.

Because of their sensitivity, Sageland Collaborative has been surveying western toad populations partially to determine if there are water quality issues in the Wasatch Front, where the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest and Strawberry Reservoir are located, part of a watershed that provides water to nearly three million people. According to Pendergast, this reality highlights the importance of partnerships focusing on western toad habitat success.

Toad guards

Part of the coalition’s efforts to protect the western toad includes guarding toadlets as they migrate to their winter habitat. According to Bryant Haley, Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest biologist, these collaborations have already been extremely beneficial to the population.

In 2024, Cottonwood Canyons Foundation joined the Forest Service, Utah Division of Wildlife, and Hogle Zoo at Silver Lake in Brighton, Utah, for the winter migration. Forest Service biologists initiated a trail closure and gathered staff from the Salt Lake Ranger District to support the migration.

Volunteers designated as “toad guards” protected toadlets from construction and foot traffic on one of the most heavily visited trails in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest.

Beavers, toads, wildfire, woah!

“With the Wasatch Front being home to nearly 3 million people, the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest is one of the busiest recreation areas in the U.S.,” Haley said. “This not only results in high levels of disturbance and loss of habitat for wildlife, such as the western toad, but also places a critical need for land management practices that can reduce wildfire.”

One way to restore these environments and reduce wildfire on the land is through the development of Beaver Dam Analogs.

The Forest Service, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Hogle Zoo and Sageland Collaborative have previously partnered up to build these human-made structures that mimic natural beaver dams in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. Beaver Dam Analogs sustain stream restoration projects, improve beaver and toad habitats and create natural fuel breaks that mitigate wildfires.

“These wetland habitats can act as a buffer and prevent wildfires from spreading at such a rapid rate as they would if these wetlands weren't there,” Fang said.

Haley furthered explained that Beaver Dam Analogs make the landscape more resilient against wildfires because of the increase in moisture from dams. The wider streams and pools, which create wetland habitat that attract beavers, also reduce available fuels.

“These same functions that create firebreaks are identical to those that would be chosen to increase habitat in the forest for western toads,” Haley said.

In addition to wildfire prevention, Beaver Dam Analogs can be used to catch sediment left over from large wildfires. Capturing the sediment greatly improves water quality for fish and wildlife populations along with other downstream water uses for agriculture and cities.

The Forest Service plans to work with Trout Unlimited to build another Beaver Dam Analog on the Tie Fork River, which drains land burned in the Tank Hollow Fire in 2017. The Forest Service and Trout Unlimited will also join Sageland Collaborative and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to place Beaver Dam Analogs in three streams within Big Cottonwood Canyon to document the impact of wetland restoration projects on wildlife populations.

Hogle Zoo and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources will join forces to monitor wildlife using acoustic monitors and trail cameras before and after Beaver Dam Analog installation at these sites.

“The sites have all been selected for their potential to provide suitable habitats for western toads within the canyon,” Haley said.

The Forest Service and its partners are engaged in large, widespread efforts to protect this grumpy-looking amphibian. But it’s not just the toad, after all. It’s the beavers, the trout and the water, which all of us ultimately rely on.

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