The endangered Wyoming Toad’s population numbers could get a boost from a new plan from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Wyoming Toad is the most endangered amphibian in North American, and lives only in Albany County.
The toad’s numbers started decreasing in the 1970s, for reasons mostly unknown. Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed a plan that would allow landowners in key habitat areas to either sell their land to the agency, or forfeit future development rights to their land in return for financial reimbursement and habitat monitoring.
Ann Timberman is the project’s leader at the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge Complex. She says cooperation between public and private is the most important feature of the plan.
"It’s a species that with just a few key landowners we could make conservation strides with this animal and be able to demonstrate the public-private partnership which is the way we have to conserve species into the future."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service will hold a public meeting on Wednesday, December 4th at 5:30pm at the Albany County Fairgrounds to hear local input on the plan.