From Endangered Ecosystems Alliance:

The Fowler’s Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri) is one of Canada’s rarest toads. In Canada, it is found only along limited sections of the Lake Erie shoreline in southern Ontario, where it depends on a closely connected mosaic of sandy beaches, dunes, shoreline wetlands and shallow temporary pools. Today, only three populations remain, at Rondeau Provincial Park, Long Point, and in an area of the Niagara Peninsula.

Unlike many amphibians, Fowler’s Toad spends much of its life on land. But it needs shallow ponds and pools to reproduce, making the connection between healthy beaches, dunes, wetlands and aquatic habitat critical to its survival. Its loud breeding call—often described as a prolonged, high-pitched scream—is one of the distinctive sounds of Ontario’s Lake Erie shoreline.

The species has disappeared from numerous historical sites along Lake Erie and is now Endangered under Canada’s Species at Risk Act and Ontario’s species-at-risk legislation. Shoreline development, beach modification, off-road vehicles, invasive species and the loss or degradation of breeding pools have all contributed to its decline.

Fowler’s Toad is a powerful reminder that protecting ecosystems means protecting the connections between them.

For this little toad, beaches, dunes, wetlands and temporary pools are all part of the same habitat—and losing these connected habitats can put local populations, and ultimately the species, at greater risk.

Please SEND A MESSAGE to federal decision-makers to protect endangered ecosystems across Canada by reintroducing and strengthening the Nature Accountability Bill.