Volunteers Needed to Survey Frogs across Maine

Contact: Susan Gallo, (207) 781-2330, ext. 216

FALMOUTH, Maine, April 17, 2008—As Maine’s peepers herald the start of spring, Maine Audubon is sending out a cry for volunteers across the state to listen for and note the sounds of frogs on several evenings through early summer.

“After heavy snow cover and a cold spring delayed the season by about two weeks, wood frogs and spring peepers are finally starting to call along the coast of Maine as far north as Acadia National Park,” said Susan Gallo, Maine Audubon wildlife biologist. “When we get a night of warm rain, then frogs and salamanders will really start coming to life!”

Gallo coordinates the Maine Amphibian Monitoring Project, entering its 12th year of surveying Maine’s amphibian populations.

The program needs “citizen-science” volunteers to conduct two-hour roadside surveys in Aroostook County (Dickey, Musquacook Lake, Oakfield/Stair Falls, St. John, Bootford, Chapman, Bridgewater and Patten), northern Maine (Caucomgomoc Lake, Moose Mountain, Penobscot Lake and Pittston Farm), downeast Maine (Tunk Lake, Corea and Ellsworth) and central Maine (Madison and Greenfield).

Ideally, volunteers have e-mail and Internet access and can commit three years to the project. After passing an online quiz on frog calls, they conduct surveys first in early spring to hear spring peepers and wood frogs, then in late spring to hear American toads and northern leopard and pickerel frogs, and finally in early summer for gray tree, green, mink and bullfrogs. Volunteers make 10 stops along their routes, waiting five minutes at each and noting the frog species they hear.

Maine has nine species of amphibians, and usually only a few are heard at any one time, making identification relatively easy for beginners. Potential volunteers as well as the public are welcome to take the frog quiz, designed by the U.S. Geological Survey, at www.pwrc.usgs.gov/frogquiz.

The Maine Amphibian Monitoring Project was begun in 1997 by Maine Audubon and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to assess amphibian populations, not only across Maine but nationwide as part of an effort coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Those interested in participating should contact Susan Gallo at (207) 781-2330, ext. 216, or sgallo@maineaudubon.org.

MAINE AUDUBON works to conserve Maine’s wildlife and wildlife habitat by engaging people of all ages in education, conservation and action. For more than 160 years, Maine Audubon has been connecting people with nature and leading science-based conservation in major projects across the state. An independent affiliate of Audubon’s national organization, Maine Audubon has seven local chapters, 11 nature centers and sanctuaries, and 11,000

members and supporters.

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