impacts of environmental changes. Recent concern over declines in 
     
     various amphibian populations i.e., a definite downward trend in 
     
     numbers over a span of time appropriate to the amphibian species’ 
     
     life history (Vial and Saylor, 1993), led to calls for assessment 
     
     of their populations across Canada. 
     
    

    
     On Prince Edward Island there are several published and 
     
     unpublished studies of amphibians and reptiles (Hurst, 1944; 
     
     Bleakney 1958; Cook, 1967; Morton et al, 1981; MacLean, 1992; 
     
     Barrett, 1993). Scattered records giving the start of spring 
     
     calling or observations of particular species in various habitats 
     
     are recorded in the Island Naturalist. Excepting the studies of 
     
     Morton et al (1981) in Prince Edward Island National Park and 
     
     MacLean (1992) at MacPhail Park, no field studies of any of the 
     
     nine native amphibian species were conducted between 1958 and 1992. 
     
    

    
     Unfortunately, these studies on the Island's amphibians do not 
     
     provide the information necessary to determine the short or long 
     
     term rate of population size change, i.e., increasing, decreasing, 
     
     or stable. In addition, there is only anecdotal information 
     
     available on the utilization of various forest covertypes by 
     
     amphibians on PEI and this information is necessary to assess the 
     
     impact of current silvicultural treatments on amphibian 
     
     populations. 
     
    

    
     To overcome these deficiencies, we established the Prince 
     
     Edward Island Amphibian Monitoring Committee (AMC) in the autumn 
     
     of 1992. This committee has representatives of the Natural History 
     
     Society of Prince Edward Island Ltd., Renewable Resources of 
     
     Holland College, Department of Environmental Resources’ Fish and 
     
     Wildlife Division, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and 
     
     Forestry, Environmental Coalition of Prince Edward Island, and 
     
     P.E.I. National Park. They met to develop a strategy to address 
     
     the deficiencies and to establish goals for the series of studies, 
     
     namely, to: 
     
    

    
     o establish and implement volunteer and 
     
    

    
     government sponsored herpetofaunal surveys in 
     
     Prince EdWard Island; 
     
    

    
     0 evaluate the gaps in both the data and the 
     
     data gathering system and develop measures to 
     
     improve the survey and reporting systems; 
     
    

    
     0 assess whether this information is sufficient 
     
     to address the question of whether amphibian 
     
     populations remain healthy, have become 
     
     restricted geographically, or have declined in 
     
     numbers in Prince Edward Island and, if 
     
     possible, report such changes; 
     
    

    
     0 implement non-destructive salamander sampling 
     
     (DeGraaf and Yamasaki, 1992) in various forest 
     
     covertypes; and 
     
    

    
     0 present the initial results of this work. 
     
    

    
     This paper will provide feedback to our members and the surveyors 
     
     on the initial year of surveys. 
     
    

    
     The Ontario amphibian monitoring system and the Saskatchewan 
     
     modifications (Gartshore et a1, 1992; Didiuk, 1993) were reviewed. 
     
    
   
   
    
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