SPLAT Update 2025-26

The fiscal year of 2025-26 was our 15th as a charitable organization in Canada! Check out our annual newsletter to see what we were up to!

2024-25 SPLAT Update

Our latest SPLAT Update is out! It is an annual report highlighting our activities from April 2024 to March 2025. It includes acknowledgments of all the people who helped with protecting amphibians from the threat of roads, recreational trampling and invasive Yellow Flag Iris. It also describes our collaboration in creating guidance for delineating and protecting wetland habitats within the Clayoquot UNESCO Biosphere Region on the west coast of Vancouver Island. 

2023-2024 SPLAT UPDATE

Check out a rundown of the projects we did last year in our 2023-24 SPLAT Update! A new venture was to help the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District mitigate the effects of a new bike path adjacent to the highway in a migratory corridor for Northern Red-legged Frogs and other amphibians. They placed new amphibian tunnels under the path and supported our efforts to build fencing to guide animals from the forest to beneath the path and then onward to cross through the original amphibian highway tunnel that we installed in 2011! Stay tuned to find out how well these new connectors work.

We also explored another wetland alongside the highway - a place where beaver activity occasionally floods the road. Turns out the beaver pond provides good summer habitat for amphibians.  Maps and information given to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure will help them decide how to reduce the risk of flooding while still maintaining wet habitat during summer droughts. 

Our biggest continuing effort is our collaboration with the Huu-ay-aht First Nations. We are monitoring new tunnels under the Bamfield Road to test how well they protect Western Toads from being "splatted", and allow them to travel to breed at Frederick Lake. It's rare to find such a large breeding population in the region. We highlight a bit of our conversations with two Knowledge Holders from the Huu-ay-aht First Nations who spoke about their relationships with the lake and wildlife and the reasons why amphibians are important.

SPLAT UPDATE 2022-23

Our 2022-23 SPLAT Update provides a summary of the work we did in collaboration with the Huu-ay-aht First Nations protecting Western Toads with new underpasses on the Bamfield Road. It also highlights an experiment to remove invasive Yellow Flag Iris from our ocean shoreline, ongoing monitoring of Northern Red-legged Frog populations and their use of underpasses along Pacific Rim Highway, and stewardship of amphibian habitats within the lands and waters of the Toquaht Nation. We acknowledge 100 people and funding agencies who contributed to our work last year! Check it out here.

Wetland Stewards Activity Report for 2021-22

We've published the highlights of our conservation actions to reduce the threats of roads and habitat loss on amphibians in 2021-22. We want to thank all the people who helped make it an inspiring year for us. We hope reading it will inspire you too!  Find it here.

SPLAT Update 2020 - 2021

Check out our summary of projects that happened in 2020 -2021!

Amphibian Friendly Layers Added to Bridge Pathway

Creating an amphibian-friendly pathway over the rip rap beneath the Lost Shoe Bridge has continued since our earlier post this summer. We had always planned to add soil and plants over the mixture of sand and small stones, called "pit run", used to fill cracks in the rip rap. The importance of doing so was reinforced when we watched a Wandering Salamander struggle to get purchase on the "pit run" as it climbed up the slope at one of the bridge corners. 

Adding organic soil was a good idea, not only to provide a surface easier for salamander feet (and frog feet) to grip, but also to help hold moisture on the path that we want these moisture-loving creatures to cross. 

Once the summer heat subsided and rain began to fall more regularly, it was time to add native plants. We placed a layer of organic soil over top of the pit run and secured more pieces of downed wood to the rocks under the bridge. 

Then, from the corners where the fencing meets the bridge abutments to as far as the light can reach beneath the bridge, we planted dozens of sword ferns and lady ferns, sedges, rushes, false lily of the valley, coastal strawberry, twinflower and mosses. The final step was to spread fallen alder leaves over the soil and around the plants.

The following photos show the transformation from rip rap to pit run to a vegetated path in the southeast corner of the bridge.

More dramatic results happened in the southwest corner where the log placement reduced a steep drop across the rocks where the amphibian fencing joined the bridge abutment.

We were very pleased to find a Rough-skinned Newt on the path at this corner last week. It camouflaged well with the layer of dead alder leaves.

Our ongoing task is to monitor amphibian movements beneath the bridge. We installed cameras and search for frogs and salamanders along the highway and fences during warm rainy nights. The survey data will give us a relative measure of how many amphibians are moving across the road and being intercepted by the fencing. This will provide an index of how many we should expect to photograph moving under the bridge if our path is working!

Stay tuned for the results later this winter after we go through our camera images!

The Central Westcoast Forest Society, B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation support this project. We are grateful to them and a dozen community volunteers who have helped with the night surveys.

Guidelines for Amphibian & Reptile Conservation During Road Building & Management Activities in British Columbia

The provincial government has produced a set of guidelines at their website for reducing the impacts of roads on amphibians and reptiles in British Columbia. It's a resource for environmental consultants and various levels of government, industry and private landowners who build, manage and maintain roads in our province. It is a "living document" that will be updated as new information becomes available. We're happy that some of our work was included in the current version and we're onside to share more as we explore ways to improve passage for frogs and salamanders under Highway 4 on the west coast of Vancouver Island.  

Watch this video to see why amphibians and reptiles in BC need our help when it comes to roads.

Creating a Path for Amphibians Over "Rip Rap" Armouring a Bridge

Summer 2020 is an eventful year for improving amphibian passage beneath Highway 4 on the west coast of Vancouver Island!

Parks Canada is installing three new box culverts close to the one we put in place with the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure in 2011. We're looking forward to sharing the design features of the Park culverts and fencing system once they are complete in a few weeks.

In the meantime, we have shifted our attention down the road to another crossing structure, a bridge over a tributary to Lost Shoe Creek. The bridge allows passage for Coho Salmon and Cutthroat Trout, as well as four-legged wildlife that can swim in the current or hop along the exposed shoreline. It's easy to move under the bridge at low water levels in summer but not during the rainy season. When water rises, flow increases and the shorelines become gnarly. The banks of the creek are armoured with large sharp angular rock, known as "rip rap". It protects the bridge abutments from scouring by heavy water flows. This is standard practice for bridge construction in British Columbia and other places, but it creates impediments to passage for smaller creatures like amphibians. They can get stuck in the cracks between the angular rocks! 

This particular bridge occurs at a hotspot for migrating Northern Red-legged Frogs. Several of their breeding ponds and forested habitats occur on opposite sides of the highway near Lost Shoe Creek. One of the habitats is an artificial salmon-rearing off-channel constructed in 2013. In 2014, we installed ~ 200 m of fencing to stop frogs and salamanders from being killed on the highway near the off-channel. Although the fencing works well to reduce the number killed, it blocks passage between habitats. 

That's where the bridge comes in... it could be the perfect habitat connector if we did something about the "rip rap". So that's what we're doing. Working with a crew of stream habitat restoration specialists from the Central Westcoast Forest Society, we spent the last two days creating a smoother path over the "rip rap" under the bridge. 

Our pictures tell the story:

Step 1. The crew reviewed how the amphibian fencing connects to the bridge abutments.

We explained the problem with the "rip rap", and our objective to create better pathways for amphibians under the bridge.

Step 2. We received a truckload of "pit run", a mix of coarse sand and rounded gravels from a local quarry. The truck delivered a quarter of the load to each corner of the bridge.

Step 3. The crew shovelled the "pit run" into wheel barrows and buckets so it could be carried under the bridge.

To prevent disturbance and ensure we didn't spill dirt into the stream, we did all the work by hand.

Many buckets and shovels full of dirt were transferred...

... to where it was placed to cover the "rip rap" bench above the high water line.

We raked to create a smooth pathway...

... then added more buckets to fill in gaps.

At one point we noticed a Northern Red-legged Frog sitting on a rock in the creek!  It seemed to be watching our progress. To see the frog check out the closest rock to the camera in the foreground.

Step 4. We measured the length of logs needed to place across each slope at the corners of the bridge.

We cut the logs...

... moved them to the bridge corners...

... and positioned them where they will help lessen the steepness of the approach from the ends of the fencing.

Step 5. To secure the logs, we drilled holes in the rocks, washed out the rock dust, and then inserted glue for cable.

After securing the cable in the rock holes we cinched it around the logs with staples.

Then covered the logs with landscaping cloth and poured more buckets of "pit run" on top.

We smoothed the surface to create a shallow slope from the ends of the fences around the bridge abutments.

Some of the fences were overgrown by alder trees so the crew used a powerful weed wacker...

... and cut back the alder to make a clear path for the amphibians to follow to the bridge.

We needed one more bucket of dirt to fill a steep section along one of the fences.

It felt good to deliver the last bucket!

The crew will take a break from this project for several weeks until it's time to plant. Then we'll use wildlife cameras to monitor the frogs and salamanders that move along the new paths and compare to what we saw moving over the "rip rap" last year.

We are grateful to the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation and the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure for funding this work. 

We hope information that we share about the effectiveness of this project can help create smoother passageways for amphibians in other places!

What Have We Been Up To ...

Our projects to mitigate the effects of roads on amphibians on the west coast of Vancouver Island are still underway. We invite you to read about our recent work in our annual newsletter - the SPLAT UPDATE for 2019-2020.

2018-19 SPLAT Update

This past year we moved a short distance away from roads to work on preventing toads from being trampled on shorelines. We've written about the toad project and our continuing work to mitigate the effects of roads on amphibians in our annual activity report - SPLAT Update for 2018-19.

2017-18 SPLAT Update

We're continuing to monitor the movements of frogs and salamanders through two culverts under Highway 4.  Read an update and learn about some of our other conservation work in the annual newsletter.

SPLAT Update

We have just published our annual newsletter. Check it out!

SPLAT Project in documentary Striking Balance

The SPLAT Project is part of a documentary TV series called "Striking Balance" which explores Canada's UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. The series presents stories about how people interact with nature and several episodes examine the problem of roads for wildlife, including the first episode on the Long Point UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on Tuesday, October 4, 2016 at 9:00 PM on TVO. SPLAT will be part of the Clayoquot Sound episode broadcast the following Tuesday, October 11 at 9:00 PM.  Here's a preview.

You can lead a Treefrog to an underpass, but you can't make it enter...

We tested the effectiveness of our new fence design using wildlife cameras. Two cameras took time-lapse photographs of our fences at the entranceway of the culvert. Surveillance started in September 2014 but we did not get a chance to look through the images until this winter.

For the most part, Northern Red-legged Frogs and Northwestern Salamanders moved without hesitation along the ground at the base of the fences into the culvert. We counted more of them moving through to the other side on peak nights than in previous years.

Northern Pacific Treefrogs, however, did not take the culvert in stride. Our September surveillance period showed dozens of juvenile treefrogs climbing the fences just outside the entranceway.

The young tree frogs were not only good climbers, they also found the weak points where the fences joined the culvert. There was a cut in the fabric on one side, and a bunched fold on the other side. At each spot the overhanging fabric came close to touching the upright wall and gave the climbing frogs a relatively easy escape hatch. It was remarkable to watch so many of them follow the same route around the overhanging lip and over the top!

After realizing the flaws, we braced the overhanging fabric with wood at the joins.

We set out the cameras again in February to see if we had made the fence more escape-proof. Granted, a week of surveillance in February is not the same as a week of surveillance in September. There were no juvenile treefrogs around to test our improvements. Instead, we watched a few adult treefrogs and a salamander climb the fences. We were happy to see that none of them escaped. We will have to wait until next September to see whether our fix is also effective for the next generation of juvenile treefrogs.

Making an escape-proof fence for treefrogs is useful in reducing the number killed by traffic. We also hoped it would guide them to take the safe passageway under the highway. It was too difficult to detect juvenile treefrogs in the grass to track the number that actually did enter and move through the culvert. Perhaps some did, however seeing so many treefrogs climbing begs the question: are culverts effective in connecting habitats across roads for these climbers? 

We're not the first to wonder about this problem… Kenneth Dodd and colleagues showed that culverts and concrete barriers helped other amphibians, but not Green Treefrogs or Squirrel Treefrogs, cross a busy highway in Florida.

Various researchers in Europe have also noted that treefrogs do not readily move through culverts. A Dutch publication on Boomkikkers (the Dutch word for treefrogs) recommends not interrupting connections between breeding and foraging habitats across the landscape when new roads are planned.

The fence installation and effectiveness monitoring were financially supported by the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust and the Government of Canada, as part of the National Conservation Plan. 

New fences to guide amphibians to the tunnel

We are in the process of replacing the temporary plastic fences that lead frogs and salamanders to the entranceways of the culvert.

Straight-walled plastic sheeting was not ideal. We watched Northern Pacific Treefrogs, juvenile Rough-skinned Newts and Western Red-backed Salamanders climb over it on several occasions, and we frequently needed to patch it (although, it fared surprisingly well over the past 3 years). 

Deciding on a more effective and durable fencing design was a matter of checking out what other folks had tried, and testing to see which options would work for our local species. We chose four different types of materials that have been used to reduce road mortality of frogs and salamanders in other places in Canada. 

We tested to see whether our local species - Northern Red-legged Frogs, Northern Pacific Treefrogs, Northwestern Salamanders and Rough-skinned Newts could be contained within fence enclosures made of each material.

 We compared the frequency of climbing and escape behaviour by each species from each type of enclosure. We observed this behaviour using time-lapse photography with wildlife cameras.

The fabric and both types of solid fencing were more effective than plastic mesh. Northern Pacific Treefrogs escaped from the plastic mesh enclosure 43% of the time, much more often than the other types of enclosures. 

Red-legged Frogs, Northwestern Salamanders and Rough-skinned Newts were able to climb further up the walls of the plastic mesh than the other materials but were rarely able to maneuver around the overhanging lip.

Based on these results and the relative ease of installation along uneven terrain, we chose the polypropylene fabric as the best material for our new fences.

Instead of being straight-walled, the new fence has an overhanging lip, to stop those amphibians with specialized toe pads from climbing over the top!

We are using fabricated plastic wood for the upright stakes and cedar for the top rails. These should last a long time in the rainforest.

The trickiest part of the installation is keeping the fabric smooth. Sections are cut to fit along each segment of the sloping terrain. Overlapping pieces are attached to the rails and stakes with washers, screws, and staples.

The fabric is folded and buried under ground so that salamanders cannot burrow beneath it.

The final touch will be to add a cone of mesh on the backside of the fence every few meters to allow animals to climb over from that direction. We only want the fence to provide a barrier to keep animals from getting onto the road, not off it!

The Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation and Clayoquot Biosphere Trust provided funding to test different types of materials. Support for building the new fences is from the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. 

Of course, we are now thinking about ways to ensure that the new fencing will work as intended. We will continue to monitor amphibian movements through the tunnel and devise a way to see what happens when frogs and salamanders encounter the fence! 

Yesterday, we were delighted to show our new fence design to a film crew for a documentary series called “Striking Balance”. The SPLAT project will be included as part of their production on how people are working to find innovative approaches to living in harmony with nature in the 16 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves across Canada.