Western toad (Bufo boreas) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 5

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Protection

Within Canada, B. boreas is yellow listed within B.C. (i.e., secure) by the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection and green listed in Alberta (i.e., not considered at risk) by Alberta Environment. Slough (1999) recommended that B. boreas be listed as critically imperilled or at risk of extirpation in the Yukon, because of the limited geographic extent of its five known, isolated populations. All native amphibians of British Columbia were declared “wildlife” in 1990, entitling them to protection under the British Columbia Wildlife Act (1982). That is, amphibians can no longer legally be killed, collected or held in captivity without a permit. Protection offered by this act is minimal since it does not protect wildlife habitat from loss, alteration or fragmentation. There are a number of large parks in Canada that protect Western Toad populations, including: Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta; Garibaldi Provincial Park (194,000 hectares) and Manning Provincial Park (65,884 ha) in the southern portion of the toad’s coastal range; the 91,000-ha Fjord Land Recreation Area, and the 317,291-ha Kitlope Protected Area along the mid-coast of British Columbia; Goldstream and Strathcona Parks on Vancouver Island; and the Coal River Springs Territorial Park in the Yukon (Slough 1999). Smaller parks also afford some protection to toad populations. The Forest Practices Code’s Wildlife Habitat Areas for rare, threatened and vulnerable species may also protect some populations, if wide riparian buffers are maintained to protect microclimatic conditions for other species. The Riparian Management Guidelines of the Forest Practices Code only protects stream channels and classified wetlands (Ministry of Forests and B.C. Environment 1995a,b). The majority of toad wetland breeding sites within Canada are not protected due to their small size (e.g., < 0.5 ha).

In the United States, B. boreas as considered ‘rare, threatened or uncommon’ in Alaska, Washington, and Montana, and ‘apparently secure’ in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, and Nevada (Table 1). Populations in Utah are ‘imperiled’. The boreal toad (B. b. boreas) was listed as State endangered in Colorado and New Mexico, and designated ‘imperiled due to rarity or some factors making it vulnerable to extirpation or extinction’ in Wyoming in the mid 1990’s. Populations in New Mexico are listed as SH (possible extirpated). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the boreal toad as ‘warranted but precluded for listing by actions of higher priority’ under the Federal Endangered Species Act for Southern Rocky Mountain populations found in Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. A Boreal Toad Recovery Team was established in 1994 in response to significant declines in the Southern Rocky Mountain populations of the United States (Jones 1999b).

Due to declines in the United States, B. boreas is the only IUCN red-listed amphibian species within Canada; it is listed as ‘EN A1ce’, meaning that it is considered endangered with a high risk of extinction in the wild because of population reductions of 50% in the last 10 years or three generations as a result of declines in area or occupancy (World Conservation Union 2000)