One of the best parts of native plant landscaping is knowing we're building and maintaining healthy habitats for amphibian buddies. A reforested area can support a huge amount of life, from bugs to birds to deer, but one of my favorite finds is a good ole slimy guy.
Rewilding your yard can benefit wildlife by providing food and shelter and doesn't require any chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers to maintain either.
Those chemicals can harm people and vulnerable wildlife, especially amphibians with super-absorbent skin.
And at the end of the day, rewilding can benefit you too, because It's just super fun and exciting to watch wildlife enjoy nature around you!
So check out these bad boys we found while out on the job!
Rough Skinned Newt
Rough Skinned newts are from 6-9. inches long and can be yellow or tan, but they are usually dark brown or black with a yellow, orange, or red underside. They get their name from their rough, granular skin.
We found this little guy exploring a newly rewilded area near a wetland. We had just removed the grass and replaced it with a native grass and wildflower mix, laid bark chips, and planted a full butterfly garden. He just wanted to see what was going on.
These total smoke shows live up and down the west coast of the United States from Alaska to California.
Habitat
Rough Skinned Newts prefer slow-moving, quiet water but can be found on land away from water under logs or rocks. They can also be found in grasslands, woodlands, and forests.
So I built this little habitat for them on a hill. It is a rainwater garden with pools, logs, rocks, and many native plants to live in. It is also home to snowberry, salmonberry, kinikinik, chokecherry, thimbleberry, riverbank lupine, yarrow, candy flower, trilliums, and hundreds of other native plant and grass species, supporting a ton of native birds, butterfly and pollinator species, we've already had a deer grazing here.
Breeding
Breeding season is December through July; the newt lays one egg at a time and attaches it to underwater debris. These buddies can sometimes migrate long distances to their favorite breeding ponds.
Fun kind of gross fact: The larvae can mature and reproduce in their larval state, although this significantly lowers their life span. This is referred to as neotony.
Biology Facts
The Rough-skinned Newt:
will display bright colored underside when threatened
are Oregon’s most poisonous newt
produces toxins that can cause mild skin irritation but, if ingested, can cause paralysis and/or death
have yellow or silver irises in their eyeballs
Threats
There are currently no major threats.
Oregon Spotted Frog
Rana pretiosa
This friend needs our help.
What they look like
The ultra-rare Oregon Spotted Frog is one you are not going to 'spot' very often.
And as pointed out by Jessie, we did not, in fact, "spot" it at all. I misidentified this frog; it's so embarrassing. I apologize to everyone who has been hurt by this scandal, especially this frog. The frog we spotted was a northern red-legged frog.
The Oregon Spotted Frog, however, comes in at a cozy 4-10cm long, sporting bumpy light brown or olive green skin. She'll have a few dark spots, which are lighter in color in the center, covering that gorgeous Mediterranean glow.
Her Belly, sides, and the underside of her short hind legs are red. Her Light jaw stripe can sometimes be very faint (the girl seen below has been misidentified and is, in fact, a northern red-legged frog, again, apologies all around) a striking, defined jaw stripe), her skin folds along the sides of her back, and her eyes are slightly upturned. She hates when we mention it, but she's similar in appearance to her sister, Rana aurora.
The Oregon spotted frog is the most aquatic native frog in the Pacific Northwest; its habitats include lakes, ponds, wetlands, and riverine sloughs. This species has been documented in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California.
Unfortunately, this frog has lost 78 percent of its former range and has been extirpated (locally extinct but exists elsewhere) from California.
Oregon spotted frogs are currently known to occur from extreme southwestern British Columbia, south through the eastern side of the Puget Trough, and in the Cascades Range from south-central Washington at least to Klamath Basin in southern Oregon.
Breeding
Breeding season is February-July depending on temperature and elevation; they lay eggs in quiet, slow water.
Biology Facts
Oregon spotted frogs:
hibernate in winter up to a foot in the mud below the water
are very threatened in Washington state, having disappeared from 70-90% of their range
are highly aquatic, more so than any other Pacific Northwest frog
are not very adaptable and do not do well with even slight changes to their environment
Threats
These frogs have experienced severe declines in Washington state, and breeding programs have been set up. They have successfully reintroduced Oregon spotted frogs in a few areas.
The main threats include nonnative species, including the bullfrog and introduced fish species, and habitat loss and destruction.
Northern Red-Legged Frog
Rana aurora
What they look like
What I really love about northern red-legged frogs is that the females are up to twice as big as the males. Males grow up to 7cm, females up to 14cm. They have a red to brownish coloring, sometimes with black splotches and black flecks, a black ‘mask’ with a white jawline that doesn’t extend to shoulders, and eyes that turn outward. Their long legs have black bands and red on the underside with folds of skin on their back and along their sides.
Where they live
The native range of northern red-legged frogs extends from the southwestern coast of British Columbia southward along the Pacific coast, east to the west Cascades, and south to Mendocino County in northwestern California.
They live at elevations ranging from sea level to 4,680 ft.
Northern red-legged frogs are found throughout western Oregon from the west Cascades and Klamath Mountains to the coast.
They prefer forest wetlands and quiet, permanent water and have been known to venture from water sources into well-shaded vegetation in wet, humid weather.
Breeding
They have an unusually short breeding period of 1-2 weeks, which can happen anytime between January and April.
They need cool water for breeding and sometimes will start breeding before the water has completely thawed out from winter freezing.
The subsequent eggs are attached to branches near the water surface a few feet from the shoreline.
Biology Facts
Northern Red-Legged Frogs:
have very quiet voices and are not often heard by humans, sometimes calling underwater
live as long as 15 years in the wild (in colder areas of the range).
Threats
Major threats are introduced species and habitat destruction.
Western Red-Backed Salamander
Plethodon vehiculum
What they look like
This kind of yucky guy is a measly 4-10cm long with a red or tannish back strip running to the end of the tail with very defined, even edges. Its Sides are dark with speckles of white, and 'er Underside is dark with white, orange, or yellow flecks.
These big guys are found along the west coast and west of the Cascade mountains.
They prefer to be under rotting logs or rocks near small streams or springs in damp mountain forests. They are found up to 1,250 meters in elevation (higher elevation than any other species in this family) on rocky and steep mountain slopes and can be found in drier locations when other species of salamanders are present.
So we built this little hotel for them:
Breeding
Breeding season is from November to March. Eggs are most likely laid in underground burrows or under rocks or logs and protected by the female, although there have been a few circumstances when the male has been found protecting eggs. Females only lay eggs every other year. Eggs hatch into tiny salamanders, skipping the aquatic larval stage.
Biology Facts
The name vehiculum comes from the word ‘vehicle’ and is a reference to the fact that the male actually carries the female while she clings to his tail during courtship.
They use chemical cues to choose mates during breeding.
Western-red-backed salamanders do not defend their territories.
Threats
There are currently no major threats.
We Can Help you Get Started!
Urban Rewilding can help with native plant landscape designs, builds, and gardening services. So no matter what point you are at in your rewilding process, we can give you a hand.
We don't use any chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides at any point. All our plants are native to the Pacific Northwest and do not need to be watered after the first year.
Landscape Installation
Urban Rewilding is licensed, bonded, insured, and super excited to plant native trees, bushes, shrubs, ferns, mushrooms, and moss in your urban garden!
Adding biodiversity to an urban garden creates a resilient ecosystem that supports native birds, bees, bugs, and other wildlife. It also creates the potential for healthy, sustainable, organic food production that requires no water or chemicals.
We can solve invasive species, erosion, water damage, and pollution issues with native plants.
Book a one-hour consult with a professional native plant landscaper to find out how we can fix your problems with native plants.
Gardening Services
Urban Rewilding aims to create beneficial native plant ecosystems in urban areas to protect vulnerable wildlife and humans from the issues that arise from dense urban areas.
Hiring us to maintain your urban yard will mean that we will add native plants from other yards wherever we never use chemicals and create lush, healthy soil, remove any overgrown or unwanted native plants, and use them in other yards! We will cultivate a healthy yard that will become part of rewilding more and more and more!!!!
Book a consultation with a gardener, or send us an email with photos, and we can get you on our regular maintenance schedule today!
We protect native plants at all costs!!!
Comments