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Volunteers listen car~£~ally £~~ ecosystem health ametimes we wonder just -. what the heck people think we're doing," said Pat Hart- man, as he strained to hear frogs croak- ing in the distance while cars zoomed by on the road behind him. Chris Brueske, his survey partner, determined their loca- tion with a Global Positioning System. After a minute, Hartman's watch beeped, signaling the end of their listen- ing period. The men jumped into action, fiiIing out a log sheet noting the types of frogs they heard and their estimates of the relative density of the frog popula- tions. Hartman and Brueske were in Leba- non Hills Regional Park in Eagan in mid-April as volunteer monitors for the Minnesota Frog and Toad Calling Survey. Along with hundreds of other volun- teers across the state, they were helping the Department of Natural Resources track the health of frog populations and the ecosystems the frogs inhabit. Worldwide, amphibian popula- tions are in trouble. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "red list," nearly half of the world`s species of frogs and toads are threatened. Habitat loss, disease and cli- mate change are factors in the decline. "Frogs aze great indicators of the v r ° \''~~ '- ,, ~~ ~~~~~ ~~ } s~= =. '~ ._ ---;- °ti ~TM~., i ' prompted t lion surve Wisconsin. Pat Hartman fills out a log recording frog ca(Is. At right is Chris Brueske. health of wetlands, and of water quality," said ICrista Larson, who coordinates the survey for the DNR Nongame Wildlife Program. So the DNR came to believe that monitoring amphibian populations could prove a va[uable gauge of the health, not only of frogs, but also of the state's wetlands. The survey hasn't yielded any con- clusive results on either frogs or wet- lands-yet. Survey data collected since 1997 indi- cate that spring peepers, as well as tree frogs, seem to have declined as much as Would you like to get outdoors, help do some important biological research and hear some pretty interesting croaking? The Minnesota Frog and Toad Calling Survey recruits volunteers every winter and spring to run routes starting in April or May. Volunteers from outside the metro area are especially needed. Volunteers are assigned open routes on a first-come, first-serve basis. As a survey volunteer, you wi(I be asked to run the same route three times, once early in spring, once in late spring and again later in the summer. Each route consists of 10 listening stops, and all are accessible by road. For more information and a map of available routes, visit the survey home page on the Minnesota DNR website: www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteering/frogtoad_sur- vey/index.html, or tall/email Krista Larson, program coordinator, at krista.larson@dnr. state.mn.us or 651-259-5120. ^. =~,% FACET5 June 2009 10% statewide, according to Larson. The American bullfrog, on the other hand, has become more common. Once found mainly in southeastern Minnesota, bull- frogs now live in much of the state. Populations of the other 11 species of frogs and toads found in Minnesota appear to be holding steady. Prior to 1994, the DNR did not moni- tor frog and toad populations. "It was a big gaping hole," said Larson. An explosion in the number of deformed frogs sighted in Minnesota the DNR to copy a popula- y model already in use in The Frog and Toad Survey makes no attempt to put a number on frog popu- lations, anear impossibility given the elusiveness of the creatures. Brueske and Hartman didn`t sight a single frog during their April stops in Lebanon Hills, and they have rarely done so over the years. They were, however, barraged with frog calls at each of the 10 listening stops on their route. At each stop, they ranked the pres- ence of each species they heard-based on the volume of those calls-on a 0-3 scale. Zero being none, 1 -individuals can be counted with space between calls, 2 -individuals can be distinguished but Volunteers listen... Continues on page S -•~ ,~. - ~ ` American bullfrog