Spring is just around the corner..

What's going on in the world and works of the Frog Ladies? Much much many things.
I've been hearing from folks that they've read the frog blog and visited my website, which shamed me into posting, and recommitting (again!) to posting more often. Here we go:

Spotted frog with radio-transmitter.

Firstly, I'm doing my Masters thesis at UBC (started in Sept 2010). I'm focused on amphibian habitat, of course, and my thesis is looking at the different habitats selected by Oregon spotted frogs and invasive bullfrogs in a habitat in which they (used to) coexist. We've been collecting data on frog movements, habitat, and frog health since June 2011, and the field season is slowly coming to a close. My field crew have been fantastic, and continuously cheerful despite the winter weather conditions.

Keith and Kendra chasing frogs in the Aldergrove study site.

As the field season winds down, data analysis begins. Thankfully Kendra, my trusty field tech and database guru, has taken on the enormous task of data entry. For me, winter has been a time of reading, report-writing, and preparing for upcoming work. Right now, I'm getting familiar with the data, formatting, doing simple computations, and preparing it for serious analysis. Next step, becoming friendly with the stats processing programs and software.


As usual for this time of year, we're gearing up for field surveys in March. This involves preparing permits, field materials, training materials, etc, and pulling together the crew for this year's surveys. I'm delighted to have a very large group of folks training this year - soon we'll have an army of surveyors able to seek out and identify spotted frogs across its historic range. Perhaps we'll find a new population!

Red-legged frogs in amplexus.

Yesterday Andrea found some spotties in amplexus (getting ready to breed) in the captive population at the Greater Vancouver Zoo.  Hopefully they don't start too soon. Eggs that are laid before a late freeze die.. so we're hoping for a later breeding season and high survival.

Big News for the Frog

Last week, Oregon spotted frog tadpoles and metamorphs were introduced to the wetland built specifically for them in the Fraser River floodplain! Hopefully, over the next few years, this population will succeed, breed, and provide another little pocket of OSF in the Valley.

Releasing juvenile frogs into the wetland! (Amanda Kissel photo)

Tomorrow (Saturday April 30), we'll be finishing up the aquatics planting portion of the wetland construction, and we're looking for volunteers. If you're interested in getting wet and muddy, send me a message. The project is outside of Agassiz, BC, and starts at 10 am on Saturday. Chest waders will be provided, but bring your own rubber boots and work gloves if you have them. We may even encounter an Oregon spotted frog or two.

Oregon spotted frog egg mass cluster

OSF hatched tadpoles

Life as an OSF tadpole.

In more good news, frog numbers are up this year. Each year in the spring we slog through wetlands to count egg masses - eggs don't hide, and stay still for you to count them. Each egg mass indicates one breeding female, and gives us a good sense of breeding success in that year. Numbers have been declining fairly steadily for the last 10 years, so it's nice to see an upswing. However, it's unclear whether the larger numbers are due to a couple of easy winters, a late spring, or increased search effort. We'll need to tease that out over the next little while by comparing the details of different breeding sites, gps tracking logs of observers, and climate patterns over the last 10 years.

Apologies for the ridiculous photo placements - blogger is messing with me.

What's the Point? OR Why save this one frog anyways?

This was originally written as an article for the Spring 2011 Fraser Valley Watersheds Coalition newsletter. It's a bit long, and a little heavier than most of my postings, but gives an overview of why I think it's important to do the work we do. I'd be really interested in hearing your thoughts. 

Every time I give a talk on the Oregon spotted frog and the work we’re doing to save it, I get a variation on the same question: “Why?”. Why are we spending all this time and money on one species when there are so many other problems we could be addressing? Admittedly, I’ve been struggling with this question myself, so I’ve been asking many people and doing a lot of reading to figure out where I stand on the subject. Here’s what I’ve found. I’d love to hear your point of view, too.

Biodiversity

Science uses the word ‘biodiversity’ to describe the astounding variety of life that exists on the planet, from bacteria and fungi to plants and animals. The term ‘ecosystem services’ describes the services provided (for free) by communities of organisms that are useful to humans. Ecosystem services allow us to breathe oxygen, grow crops in soil, drink clean water, and they maintain livable temperatures and moisture in the atmosphere. Without these services, we cannot survive. Neither can most of our living neighbors.

Biodiversity is important because each and every known and unknown creature has a role to play in the continued functioning of ecosystems as we use them today. However, more important than maintaining the ecosystem services of today, biodiversity provides possibilities for the uncertain future.

Genetic blueprints that direct construction of living creatures are the fundamental source of biodiversity. As genes mutate, through chance or error, variability is introduced to an organism (be it a bacterium or an ape) that is then successful in reproducing or not, depending on the biological and abiotic (physical) circumstances in which it finds itself with its newly minted features.

This genetic variety is the foundation of diversity that allows populations to adapt to environmental change. Individual organisms and species provide complete, self-generating and unique ensembles of genes. They interbreed to produce fertile, slightly different, offspring, providing a method for the continuation of genetic diversity.

A wide variety of species provides options for the composition of ecosystems in a wide range of (changing) physical environments. The more options available, the higher the functionality of the ecosystem. Built-in redundancies in food chains and processes improve the security of environmental services on which we depend. Biodiversity must be maintained to provide future options and opportunities for human sustenance and wellbeing.

Ethics

As such, the argument for biodiversity is a social argument, otherwise labeled an anthropocentric (human-oriented) ethical argument. Secular philosophers explain ethics as a series of social contracts that permit humans to live in social groups where we are dependent on one another for support. It follows that that moral duties to the environment stem from our duties to the earth’s human inhabitants.

Theologians are exploring our sacred obligations towards God’s Creation, our moral duty to be stewards of the earth and its creatures. Christian Colleges are now driving the ‘Creation Care’ movement in the Christian church. This non-humanist viewpoint assumes that other life-forms have value beyond that placed on them by man: they have intrinsic value assigned by God.

Philosophically, if you’ll forgive my musings, the only option for a secular human to enlist ‘intrinsic values’ as justification for species recovery is to value the whole living planet above all else. This earth ethic promotes the maintenance of life in a balanced environment where humans are a valued member of the earthling community, but not its driver or focus. Still, it seems impossible to me that intrinsic value is not ultimately assigned by humans. How can it be any other way?

So about that frog…

There’s no doubt our planet is in trouble. Our ecosystems are stretched thin and are cracking under the strain of supporting so many humans. Our environment as a whole must be sustained to sustain us. Why then do we focus on one species rather than the processes as a whole?

Single species provide us with a point of focus for our recovery activities. This idea has been tagged with many keywords: umbrella species, focal species, and flagship species are just a few. By targeting a frog that depends on warm shallow wetlands, we are working to restore a lost ecosystem, and its ecosystem services, to the Fraser Valley.

Biodiversity recovery has to exist on an incredibly wide spectrum of scales, from site-specific soil management to mitigation of climate change. Ecosystem planning has been lauded as the way of the future. However, evaluations of large-scale recovery plans show that when we increase scale to incorporate many species and ecosystems, we are rarely successful in our implementation.

By focusing on one species in the Fraser Valley, we accomplish recovery activities. We study and restore wetland habitats. We build new habitats in degraded environments. In doing so we provide homes, not only for the Oregon spotted frog, but also for the amphibians, insects, plants, fish and other wildlife whose wetland homes had been eliminated along with the frogs’. We educate and engage the public, and we try to inspire a greater understanding and love of life.

Our frog work may be small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but we must trust that elsewhere others are working at a similar scale, and some at smaller and larger scales. The cumulative actions of the Fraser Valley Watershed Coalition members are an excellent example, with many projects at many scales represented across the Valley. This gives me hope, and it makes me optimistic for the future.

Surveying and Trapping

Surveyors looking for egg masses.

.. and the frogs are finally out!

They're late this year, given the late late spring. Frogs started breeding at one of the wetlands around March 14th, about as late as it gets. Breeding season means that surveyors are out in full force, searching for and counting egg masses in known breeding locations and new.

The main egg masses you'll see in a wetland at this time of year are northwestern salamander egg masses and red-legged egg masses. If you know where to look, you might even find some Oregon spotted frog egg masses.

Oregon spotted frogs in amplexus (male on top).

This year, we're doing some really exciting work to get a good idea of exactly how large the frog populations are: a mark-recapture study at two sites. This project is being run by Amanda Kissel, a graduate student at SFU in the lab of Dr. Wendy Palen. Amanda and her field crew have been out daily for over a week trapping frogs in amphibian traps, marking them individually with Passive Integrated Transponder tags (like the microchip in a dog). By recapturing a proportion of the frogs each day, she'll be able to determine an approximate size of the entire population. Up until now, we've had to rely on counts from egg masses to determine the number of breeding females in a population. This year, we'll be able to approximate the number of males in the population and as long as we keep trapping in future years, the estimates will get more and more accurate. So far, they've captured over 80 frogs - larger than our original population estimate!

Preparations (Oct 2010)

We're in full preparation for wetland buidling this upcoming weekend, as well as some planting in Agassiz along Agassiz Slough. How does one prepare to build a wetland, you ask?
The first step came a long long time ago, when we decided on a location for wetland creation. The chosen spot is near to existing frog populations, has reasonably clean water, high sun exposure (for our sun-worshiping frogs), and low flows. It also has easy access from a road, and the base is solid enough that the excavator will not sink.
Next, we survey the land to get a feel for the high spots and the low spots: which parts are already good habitat and which can be modified to improve habitat values. Armed with a topological map of the existing site, and a knowledge of what our target creatures (and other native critters) would like to see in their new home, we sit in front of our computers and develop a plan. This involves conceptual drawings of channels, ponds, shallow benches, deep niches, wood placement, and planting plans.
After plan development comes application to Federal and Provincial agencies for permits to do the work. Permits and notifications in hand, we're ready to start! Right? Sort of.. The locations in which we do habitat restoration are necessarily in wet areas (if we want the frogs to swim). Therefore, we need to wait until a time of year when water levels are low, and when the weather cooperates. Because we're not in connected fish habitat, we can do the work outside of the usual 'work window', which requires instream works to occur during the summer months, when fish are least likely to be in the waterways and when most waterways are dry. Good thing, too, as water levels in July can be too high to work in our chosen location.
In the Fraser River system, water levels are lowest in Februrary, when most of the precipitation from the last few months are held up as snow and ice in the interior. However, February is a notoriously unpredictable time for weather: we could have a foot of snow, or frozen ground, or rain all week. March (the end of the funding window) is also frog breeding season: we don't want to disturb them at such a vulnerable life-stage.
Therefore, we're working in October. Of course, we need to be flexible about these things. Initially we had planned to do the work over Thanksgiving weekend, but terrifying weather forecasts called off the project. Current plans suggest that we'll be out on-site this coming weekend.
In preparation, we're putting up fencing around the site and flushing out creatures that may be disturbed by the construction; we'll put them in near-by suitable habitat where they'll be safe. Come Friday, we'll be loading the excavator off the truck and sculpting the landscape with heavy machinery! It's an awful lot of fun to do.
We'll be looking for volunteers to help plant the new riparian area in a couple of weeks, so keep informed through Rachel at FVWC about upcoming tree plantings (or in our case - shrubberies!).

Summer-y (September 2010)

Whew - it's been a while. Apologies for the poor pun in the title.
Summer was great fun, as it tends to be for a frogger like myself. I thought I'd let you in on some of our work.
Looking for a new home for the frogs:
Most days I was out on the water (or in the mud) searching far and wide for suitable habitat for Oregon spotted frog (OSF) introductions. We're hoping to find spaces that have large, shallow sunny wetlands with lots of native emergent vegetation that are already protected, and are bullfrog free.
What does that mean? Well.. if we break it down, we're looking for wetlands that are:

• Large: over 4 hectares (10 acres);
• Permanent water: doesn't dry up in the late summer or in the winter;
• Shallow, warm, mucky, diverse: variety of water depths and soil depths, from 0 - 3 m deep, with a combination of shallow benches, open water, hummocky vegetation and deep muck to hide in;
• Bullfrog free: see previous article - this automatically rules out most of the Fraser Valley.
• Protected: federal, provincial or municipal land that is already protected by species-at-risk management policies, or on private land where land-owners are willing participants in recovery actions.

Sadly, there aren't a lot of wetlands left out there, and many that are have already been modified to improve fish habitat by other, more fishy, land stewards. Bullfrog presence rules out some spectacular habitats along the Fraser River, such as the new Bert Brink Wildlife Managment Area, or the historically OSF-occupied West Creek Wetlands in Aldergrove. The gorgeous wetlands north of Pitt Meadows are also too bullfrog heavy for introductions. I do have a couple of leads, and if they pan out you friendly folks will be the first to hear about it.
Building habitat
In July, the Fraser Valley Watersheds Coalition partnered with Stave Valley Salmonid Enhancement Society, the City of Mission and Fisheries and Oceans Canada to continue enhancement at the Silverdale Wetlands in Mission. The event was led by Fisheries and Oceans, and we really enjoyed working together to create habitat that is suitable for both fish and native frog species.
The area as it stood was a series of large shallow ponds that held water permanently through the summer, providing excellent habitat for invasive bullfrogs and fish. This project re-graded the existing pond so that it would mostly dry in the late summer, breaking the reproductive cycle of these invasive predators. We also made the site more structurally complex with wood recycled from development projects, and by striking a diversity of grades and water depths.
Our native amphibian species (other than the Oregon spotted frog) leave the warm shallow wetlands in mid-summer when they have metamorphosed into froglets and toadlets, and are not impacted by the ephemeral (temporary) nature of the wetlands. Bullfrogs and green frogs breed later than our native species, and need permanent water through the summer to metamorphose, otherwise they feed the herons. We encourage herons.
If you're interested in see the site, there's a volunteer tree planting there next weekend: Saturday October 16th, where we'll be planting shrubs and native trees on the upland habitat. It's always a fun (and muddy) good time!
To come:
This Thanksgiving weekend there was to be another habitat construction project in Agassiz, however we've had to delay the work to accomodate the awful weather coming our way. I'll be sure to post some pictures when we're done (if I ever figure out how to post pictures on this thing..)
Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Funding Success! (June 2010)

We were successful with most of our funding applications this year! Thanks very much to our supporters at the Government of Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program, as well as the B.C. Habitat and Conservation Trust Fund. With these funding announcements in place, we’re able to start the work.

Over the last month, I have been out in the field doing midnight bullfrog surveys, habitat vegetation surveys, and planning for the upcoming construction season.

Beware the Bullfrogs

Bullfrog surveys are very important to the management of our native amphibians, as this introduced species causes havoc everywhere it goes. It travels far and wide, eating anything small enough to fit in its mouth. (Check out this video from National Geographic!)

The bullfrog, native to eastern Canada and the US, was introduced to BC for commercial frog-leg farming. Frog farms were promoted as employment and business opportunities for returning veterans after WWII. These farms failed, and the bullfrogs were released to the wild. Aquatic garden supply companies catering to newcomers to the province that missed the “sounds of summer” also imported these predators to stock backyard ponds. Now these sounds of summer can be heard all across Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, at the expense of our native amphibians. Check out The Bullfrog Project for more information on bullfrogs on Vancouver Island.

We’re just getting a handle on the extent of the bullfrog populations in B.C. We know that they are as far east as Deroche and Nicomen Slough on the north side of the Fraser, and that they are in east Chilliwack but not yet in Rosedale. We want to figure out what the boundary is between bullfrog presence and absence.

In our search for suitable introduction locations for the Oregon spotted frog, we also need to ensure that we don’t inadvertently feed a burgeoning bullfrog population with our precious OSF. Unfortunately two of our potential release locations have been found this spring to have bullfrogs present.

Help us out!

If you live in the Fraser Valley, we’d be delighted to have your help. Bullfrogs typically call from mid-June to mid-July, after dark at the end of a really hot, steamy summer day.

To survey for bullfrogs near your home, slap on some bug-repellant and pull up a chair beside your local water-body. waterbody could be a backyard pond, a stream, a ditch, a slough, or even a farm dugout.

Listen carefully. The Bullfrog calls are very deep and slow, and you can find plenty of recordings on youtube, or on this page.

The other frog you’re likely to hear is the green frog, also invasive. They’re everywhere by now – if you have bullfrogs, the green frogs are sure to have started up the chorus. They mostly sound like the twang of a large elastic band, and sometimes rise into an almost-bullfrog-like croak. If you’re not sure of what you heard, try recording it with your phone or a tape-recorder and send it to me.

While we’re on the subject, that chorus of chirping you’re hearing is the Pacific chorus frog (recently the Pacific tree frog). This little guy makes the biggest sounds!

Bullfrog call surveys are only reliable after dark following a hot summer day. If you’ve listened for a whole hour without hearing a bullfrog, you probably have a bullfrog-free pond!!

Take notes about your survey: date, location, start/end time, temperature, weather that day, and what species you hear and I’d be delighted to have the data.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Frogging!