The Coastal Tailed Frog (Ascaphus trueii) is listed as Special Concern by the Federal Species At Risk Act (SARA). There are no official government records of the species on Gambier Island, and their habitat is threatened by planned logging of old forest habitat in the headwaters of Whispering Creek.

This past summer (2022), university students, Samantha Wing and Sylvia Ascher, launched a continuation of a project to determine the presence and distribution of the Coastal Tailed Frog on the Island by eDNA testing in 9 creeks.

The project was funded by the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, the Islands Trust Conservancy, the Howe Sound Biosphere Region Society. Conservancy director, Mike Stamford, provided in-kind support by leading the project.

Two Archaeological / Cultural / Environmental (ACE) field technicians from the Squamish Nation participated in some of the creek sampling. A project report was released at the end of April this year.

The eDNA results from 52 sample sites distributed among nine streams detected the Coastal Tailed Frog eDNA in 64% of sites, and these positive detections were clustered within five streams. Negative results were clustered within four streams.

There was a Coastal Tailed Frog tadpole sighting in Mannon Creek.

For more details on the project please see the information from the ÁTL’KA7TSEM / HOWE SOUND Biosphere Region