They’ve been called the amphibious equivalent of a canary in a coal mine and next week area residents will have a chance to do something to save them.

The fourth annual International Save the Frogs Day, hosted by the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. will see participants taking a tour of the Nanoose Bay DL 33 forest and wetlands on Saturday.

Frog populations been declining worldwide at unprecedented rates, with nearly one-third of the world’s 6,490 amphibian species threatened with extinction, said Wilderness Committee spokesperson Annette Tanner.  Amphibians, she added, have been facing an onslaught of environmental problems, including pollution, infectious diseases, habitat loss, invasive species, climate change, and over-harvesting for the pet and food trades.

“The public and all the many supporters such as the Regional District of Nanaimo and the Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities have worked hard to try to protect DL33’s sensitive ecosystems that included winter range for a local herd of 12 elk protected,” Tanner said. “The Frog Day tour of this rare public-owned Coastal Douglas-fir forest will highlight the fact that although Provincial Government has documented the extinction crisis facing this forest-type on east Vancouver Island, it has now allowed this rare public-owned Coastal Douglas-fir forest to be logged.”

The tour will meet at 1 p.m. at the Petrocan station in Nanoose Bay. For more information call 250-752-6585.

Photo: Red-legged frogs are just one species organizers hope to see on the tour.