When major infrastructure projects are built in rural areas, wildlife is often dislocated and moved out of the way. This is called mitigation translocation, and it is a globally recognized method for moving animals. However, not everyone applies it the same way, or even at all.

In Canada, provinces like Ontario and Alberta only use relocation for federally listed at-risk species. In British Columbia, all 32 native amphibians and reptiles — federally listed as at-risk or not — must be relocated. But it wasn’t always this way.

Before the 2010 Winter Olympics, a section of B.C.’s Sea-to-Sky Highway was realigned to accommodate increased traffic flow between Vancouver and Whistler. However, the new highway would bisect the wetland habitat of the northern red-legged frog, a species listed under Canada’s Species at Risk Act.

Public pressure to protect the species prompted the provincial government to find a solution. That solution was to translocate all frogs from the affected wetland to a habitat outside the project footprint. Since then, mitigation translocation has become standard practice for amphibians and reptiles.

I am a Lab Manager and Research Technician at the University of British Columbia’s Martin Conservation Decisions........

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