Multiple agencies work to restore endangered boreal toad population in Colorado
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Colorado Parks and Wildlife is working to restore the boreal toad population.
According to CPW, the amphibian has been listed as an endangered species since 1993.
Tuesday, July 19, staff and volunteers from CPW, the U.S. Forest Service, and Colorado State University hiked near Leadville to help restore the boreal toad population.
CPW has spent two decades determining why the toad population has declined and how they can help it. The main cause of decline is the amphibian chytrid fungus, a skin fungus that has also attacked many other amphibian species worldwide.
CPW documented the hike on their Twitter account. Thirty-five staff and volunteers went out to West Tennessee Creek, which is 11,500 feet above Leadville. They each carried 35-pound bags of tadpoles four miles up to the creek.
Watch a year-old boreal toadlet swim about Titan Lake along West Tennessee Creek above Leadville Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/jH0eqM7sZN
— CPW SE Region (@CPW_SE) July 20, 2022
The boreal toad is Colorado's only alpine toad species that inhabit lakes, ponds, and marshes at 8,000 to 12,000 feet in elevation.
