Heber City’s tiniest neighbor is on the state’s conservation species list

Paula Trater has been studying Heber City’s smallest neighbor since 1992. The Columbia spotted frog, she said, deserves the attention.

As a self-proclaimed “frog lady,” Trater has been surveying the Columbia spotted frog in the Wasatch Back even before the Jordanelle Dam was built. From 1994 until about 2012, Trater counted her small, slippery amphibious friends every spring. Now she is a biological technician for the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission.

It was love at first survey for Trater.

“To know a frog is to love a frog,” she said simply.

With a great deal of emotion, Trater tenderly described the Columbia spotted frog. With their beefy “Popeye-like” biceps, she said it’s easy to tell the males from the females, which have longer, thinner fingers. The females