There currently exists only a single extant population of northern leopard frogs in British Columbia (BC), Canada, and past reintroduction attempts have met with limited success. As a result, the BC Northern Leopard Frog Recovery Team initiated a search for a new reintroduction site in 2021 through the development of quantitative assessment tools. This involved establishment of a Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) model and a Site Selection Criteria table based upon the unique habitat requirements of the northern leopard frog in BC. The HSI model spatially filtered for suitable habitat within the historical range based on attributes such as elevation, number of waterbodies, solar exposure, road density, etc. Any potentially suitable locations detected by the HSI were further filtered during a preliminary desktop assessment whereby clearly unsuitable sites (e.g., located in heavily forested areas or with significant barriers between habitat types) were eliminated. Concurrently with the HSI, a Site Selection Criteria table was developed. Use of this table involves scoring each site for numerous habitat attributes important for the northern leopard frog in the overarching categories of breeding habitat, foraging habitat, overwintering habitat, connectivity, and land use/other. On-the-ground field visits were completed at all suitable sites in spring, summer, and fall in order to collect the relevant data to allow for scoring of each site in the Site Selection Criteria table. We found these methods to be an effective way to quantitatively compare and
select a new reintroduction site.