Amargosa Toad Habitat Restoration on Private Property: A Success Story

The Amargosa toad was not listed as endangered in part because of private landowners' efforts to restore habitat and protect this endemic species. This poster tells the story, through a map, pictures, and text, of a rare and endemic species that lives in and around springs and the Amargosa River in the Oasis Valley, near Beatty, Nevada. The poster shows the locations of private property and their relation to the Amargosa toad habitat. Not coincidentally, half of the habitat is on private property. People like to live near water. So do toads. People like to farm and use the water for their crops and livestock. This is not good for toads who rely on open water that needs to persist long enough for their eggs to hatch and the tadpoles to metamorphose into toadlets. Rather than having Federally endangered species living on their land, the landowners got together with many other agencies, including the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Nevada Department of Wildlife, and The Nature Conservancy, to restore the toads' habitat with great success.