Amphibians are important because they provide keystone ecological functions in forest soils and wetlands. In recognition of their importance, there is growing scientific concern and a sense of urgency about the rapid decline in species, distributions, and population numbers on a global scale. Little is known about the extent, distribution or ecology of amphibian populations in northern British Columbia. This multi-year project sets a long-term goal to monitor population trends and study the ecology of amphibian populations in the Central Interior of BC. Distribution patterns of long-toed salamanders, western-toads, wood and spotted frogs are being studied in the Aleza Lake Research Forest, the John Prince Research Forest and forested lands adjacent to UNBC. We hypothesize that there is a single population in each study area having uniform dispersal and migration networks running through a heterogeneous patchwork of wetland and terrestrial ecosystems. Our study design tests for isolated breeding patches versus random mating among sites by measuring the extent of gene flow and genetic structure from captured individuals. Since environmental and life history attributes affect dispersal and migration we also compare skin coloration, age group and gender among habitat types. Conservation strategies mitigating the effects of habitat fragmentation and environmental degradation are assisted by studies that provide information on ecological and genetic traits of populations. This study contributes to a growing network of local initiatives that are pooling data to monitor and address global rates of amphibian decline.