The western spadefoot prefers grassland, scrub and chaparral locally but can occur in oak woodlands.

It is nocturnal, and activity is limited to the wet season, summer storms, or during evenings with elevated substrate moisture levels.

[4] The western spadefoot is experiencing some habitat loss, but is still common in its range and the population declines are very minor even though it is listed as "near threatened" in some counties of California.

Tadpoles feed mainly on plants and planktonic organisms, algae, ants, small invertebrates and dead aquatic larvae of amphibians, they may become cannibalistic.

After hatching, the tadpole's only chance for survival is to develop into a toad before the puddle dries up, which takes 12 to 13 days.

Most of the remaining vernal pools that the toads rely on for reproduction lie on protected public land or preserves.

[5] Spadefoot toads have been known to take advantage of man-made standing water sources such as road ruts, cattle ponds, and artificial pools.

However, it is listed as a Species of Interest for the Central Subarea and a fully covered species for the Coastal Subarea on the Natural Community Conservation Plan (NCCP) and Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for the County of Orange Central and Coastal Subregion.

[5] Development in Orange County placed populations of Spea hammondii under threat, and they were relocated to newly constructed mitigation pools in 2005 and 2006.

[9] The project also will restore 15 acres of coastal sage scrub around the pools to provide foraging areas for the spadefoot toads, as well as nesting opportunities for the cactus wren.