Why was ACA founded?
Amphibians, such as frogs and salamanders, constitute about one-fifth of all vertebrate species on Earth. They’re the most endangered vertebrate group, and scientists claim that they are like “canaries in a coal mine,” meaning their demise could signal other problems to come, including for people. In a keynote address to the First World Congress of Herpetology in 1989, former ACA board member David B. Wake generated worldwide headlines when he reported that amphibian populations were unexpectedly declining in several environmentally “pristine” places around the world. For instance, former ACA board member Martha L. Crump and her assistants had observed the popular Golden Toad (pictured in ACA’s logo) apparently vanishing over a few short years in Costa Rica’s Monte Verde Cloud Forest. At the time that Dr. Wake sounded his alarm, only limited resources were available for scientists to confirm and explain amphibian declines, much less to help policymakers respond. Thus, in 1991, Dr. Wake
