Author Archives: frogs are green

04/6/15

The Benefits of Frogs in Your Garden

Frogs and toads, just like so many other animal species, are suffering a decline in numbers. This is due to environmental problems, climate change and human factors and show that the changes we are seeing in the environment are signs that something is wrong.

What many people should realize is that frogs need to be viewed as an important part of the ecosystem.

The Benefits of Frogs in Your Garden

Frogs and toads are not only very beautiful and diverse (Frogs per Wikipedia – approximately 4,800 species); they can also prove to be very beneficial for your garden.

  • Every ecosystem is comprised of multiple species that create a chain. It is what keeps the balance in nature and what maintains life as we know it. As such, frogs and toads have their place under the sun and should be protected. This is the reason why you will do very well to ensure that frogs can find shelter in your garden. If you provide the right conditions and features for these amphibian creatures, they should appear.
  • Frogs are good bioindicators. There is a lot that you can learn from the frogs in your garden. Frogs can show you that something is wrong in the area, or if they are happily breeding and living in the area, then everything should be okay. If you are dedicated and want to have a perfect garden, you can use the indications from frogs to know if the conditions in your garden are good, or if the frogs that used to dwell there suddenly go missing, you will know there is a disturbance.
  • Pest control – frogs are amazing at cleaning the garden from harmful insects. If you are having such problems, you can easily eliminate them by introducing frogs among your plants. A single frog can eat over 100 insects, such as caterpillars, sow bugs and cutworms and more. These can destroy your entire garden if left unchecked. With frogs around, you won’t need to use harmful pesticides, either.

Toads and frogs can be one of the best solutions for your garden. Not only will you have a garden safe of bugs and insects, but you will also have very pleasant amphibians hopping around.

Tree Frog and Bug from EarthRangers.com

Tree Frog and Bug from EarthRangers.com

Guest post by Ella Andrews granted on behalf of: an excellent cleaning in Ruislip.

04/5/15

How Awareness Really Catches Fire

The phone is ringing and a friend is excited to tell me there’s a discussion about frogs right now on WNYC radio. Robin Moore, the author and photographer of “In Search of Lost Frogs,” is being interviewed on the Leonard Lopate Show (The Conservation Efforts Trying to Keep Frogs From Going Extinct). At the same moment, a Jersey City colleague is emailing me about the same thing and writes that she’s left a comment about Frogs Are Green and our kids frog art project on WNYC’s website.

During the interview they discuss many of the issues that frogs face today, including the deadly Chytrid Fungus and climate change. One caller asks about the drought situation in California and its toll on frogs. They also talk about how many frog species have gone extinct in the wild and at the same time new species are being discovered, as close as New York. They also talk about how important the medical research is as they test the poisonous skin of dart frogs.

dart frog by devin edmonds

Dart Frog courtesy of Devin Edmonds

Almost every day, Facebook friends post on my timeline or the Frogs Are Green page, or Tweet at us about frogs and/or the environment.

I’m sharing this because it was six years ago this May that I founded Frogs Are Green, and so many people laughed at this cause. They’d say, “Frogs? … Who’s going to care about frogs?”

I’m happy to tell you that in six years we have reached over a million people. Each month we have 13,000 visitors who look at more than 32,000 pages, which gives us an amazing bounce rate of 1.8 %. Yes, that is not a misprint, we have a 1.8% bounce rate. These stats have been holding steady for years and are again on the rise.

We didn’t used to post on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn (groups) and Twitter every day, but in 2014 we made a commitment to do so and reach more people than ever.

As the above story shows, our mission is working. Awareness really begins to catch fire when others know you so well that they support and advance your campaign goals without hesitation.

It all comes from zeroing in on a niche and being consistent by sharing every day. By being “top of mind” on a particular thing that’s so different, so unique, they just see frogs and think of Frogs Are Green.

10 Tips for building your nonprofit’s awareness and following

  • Make sure that your website (the nucleus of your online presence) is 100% on target in expressing your mission and goals. On your homepage be brief and entice, don’t overwhelm with too many calls to action. Make sure your brand and mission are crystal clear. Be sure you are blogging and/or adding new, valuable content consistently.
  • Be sure when you blog, post, or tweet, you are adding an appropriate and eye-catching photo that will prompt others to share it, not just “like” it.
  • Be sure you are using #hashtags but don’t go crazy with them, lest no one will see or read your post… (I see this a lot on Instagram; so many hashtags I can’t find the message!)
  • Don’t try to sell all the time with posts/tweets about buying products, classes or donating to your cause. Once in a while is all right, but you will really build your audience by sharing significant information. As they move around your website reading articles they will come to respect your efforts and just may click that donate button on their own.
  • Your “competition” organization is your friend. Remember, you are both trying to help others, save wildlife and the environment, and so those that follow those other organizations may follow you too! Be kind and retweet.
  • If you are planning to boost or advertise, make sure you are being selective about the information and target audience. Do your homework and know where your target is, both online or offline.
  • Remember that your target audience can be in many different places. Be sure to review your Google Analytics each week and identify if what you are doing is working. For example, if you are spending most of your social media time on Facebook but when you look at your stats you have more people visiting your site from Twitter, you should tweet more often than you are!
  • People consume content in many different ways, so be sure you are creating video for YouTube, audio for Podcasting, Powerpoint (for Slideshare or LinkedIn), photo galleries on Flickr, Pinterest and Facebook, blog posts that can embed these other media files, graphic images, and more… (and then share across social sites).
  • When you have new media to share, don’t post on every social site at the same time and then not post for a week until the next post. Schedule different places each day so your content is circulating all the time.
  • Be sure to alert the local media about events and other important news so that they can write about you. If you don’t tell them yourself, how do you expect them to know? Publicity helps awareness and begets more publicity.

Frogs Are Green was fortunate to interview Robin Moore on a podcast also. Listen here >> Robin Moore

04/1/15

Blotched Tiger Salamanders in Oregon

This report comes from Frances in Southern Oregon.

Tiger Salamander in Southern Oregon

My two year old pond seems to have attracted these salamanders. I am in Southern Oregon, near Klamath Falls, and on the California border. I have been told they are Tiger Salamanders, but they do not have any bright coloring.

They are mottled and striped, and the largest one I have seen in my leaf trap was about 14″ long. The pond is about two and a half feet deep, so I can’t see how many there are, and if there are any of my goldfish left. Some of the fish were about 6 – 8 inches long when I last spotted them in late summer.

The salamander in the photo was on my driveway in early February of this year. I am pretty sure they are eating all the frogs we had. I am not hearing any croaking, and the two that frequented the rim of my hot tub are not around now. I am not sure if there is anything that can be done to balance things a bit, or if some of them are becoming permanent pond dwellers and not losing their gills, as I understand happens sometimes. Do you have any suggestions or ideas? Thank you. If these are some kind of hybrid, I don’t know how good they are for the environment.

*******

I sent this query along to a few experts and here are their responses:

Matt Ellerbeck – The Salamander Man says:

Your email/inquiry about salamanders was forwarded to me from Susan Newman at Frogs Are Green.

The salamander in the photo you sent is indeed a Tiger Salamander. They are variable in color, so if you Google searched them, it is possible that you came across images that didn’t resemble this individual salamander. Tiger Salamanders are native to Oregon so pose no environmental threat. On the contrary, salamanders are indicators of a healthy environment!

You also mentioned some concern for your frogs. Tiger Salamanders may occasionally take frogs, however, they primarily feed on insects and invertebrates. In fact, Tiger Salamander tadpoles (or larvae) prey on mosquito larvae and therefore help keep the number of these pests down! As such, I wouldn’t consider them a real threat to the frogs.

Due to the benefits they provide I hope you will accept the presence of these salamanders. If you want to learn about things you can to do help them (as they are both amphibians such efforts will also benefit frogs too) please visit the following: Save The Salamanders – How You Can Help

*******

I asked Matt why the frogs may have disappeared?

He replied:

Frances mentioned she didn’t hear the frogs croaking – perhaps the frogs are indeed still around but merely not singing at this time. I believe most frogs sing seasonally, or only at certain times. I have a backyard pond with frogs, and sometimes I may not see them for days on end, and suddenly they will reappear.

I have also read that cats will kill frogs, so they, or other predators (birds, snakes), may have taken them.

These are all plausible causes, however, I can’t say for certain. The reality is, any backyard pond (whether natural or human-man) that has animals in it will also attract various predators.

*******

Keith Gisser, Herpetologist and founder of Herps Alive! says:

Blotched Tiger Salamander. Pretty dull-colored animal normally compared to other (sub)species.

While pretty voracious eaters, rare (in my experience) for them to eat frogs or fish (although they will eat fish when in larval form) – they prefer invertebrates.

*******

Sara Viernum, Founder of The Wandering Herpetologist says:

Agreed! It’s a Blotched Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma mavortuim melanostictum). There is a small, known population (native) in southern Oregon near the border. Like all tiger salamander species these will eat anything that fits in their mouths including invertebrates, lizards, mice, snakes, frogs, tadpoles, small fish, and other salamanders. Since they are a native predator in your area they may initially cause a decrease in the local frog population but once they become established in your pond their numbers will most likely balance out with the frogs.

This site has some good info about the western tiger salamander group. California Herps – Salamanders

03/23/15

Keeping Your Pond Alive

The water in your garden pond is very sensitive to change. Depending on a number of factors, a pond can soon go from crystal clear to pea soup without any apparent explanation. You will quickly learn that pond pollutants can hide in the clearest water.

frog in a pond

Filtration

An easy first step to ensuring a healthy pond environment is the use of a good filter and you should contact a specialist retailer, like Swell UK, who can advise you on the best solution. Biological filters will break down harmful toxins, like ammonia from fish waste, so they can be either removed or absorbed by the plant life in your pond. A UV filter will also help keep green water and algae at bay and keep down the levels of bacteria that could be harmful to the life in your pond.

A good water balance

High nitrate or pH levels in your pond can bring about the most common pond problem: algae. Algae can cause havoc in ponds, keeping light and oxygen from the plants and animals that need them. Regular testing should be carried out to keep on top of the environment in the water before an algae problem breaks out. You can pick up kits for any potential problem from online stores like Swell UK. These give you the all important heads-up you need to take action.

A key part of maintaining the right water balance is ensuring you use a good liner that will not only resist damage but ensure any outside nitrate sources, like fertilizer, are prevented from seeping through.

Oxygen

Oxygen plays a vital role in ensuring the good health of your pond. Without oxygen, certain bacteria found towards the bottom of ponds will begin to produce acids and toxins that will harm the fish, insects and helpful bacteria that may live in your pond. By planting particular oxygenating plants, you can create a natural balance of oxygen levels, but only during the day. By making use of an air pump or any water feature that will disturb the water surface, you can maintain a good oxygen level throughout the day, protecting the well being of your pond.

03/22/15

The Young Environmental Artist

The young artist’s family and friends step out the cab and walk into the gallery one by one, parents and children of different ages. They begin looking and move down the wall, admiring the variety of each artwork. The young artist turns and as she walks across the gallery I see a shy smile across her lips. Yes, she has spotted her own artwork and moves closer to see it. I ask her if I can take her photograph with her artwork and she agrees. Her family takes pictures also.

young environmental artist at 58 Gallery on Coles Street in Jersey City

We have a conversation about whether she had a lesson in school about frogs and the environment before she did her artwork (statement) on pollution. She tells me that she did some research but just created this based on her own imagination.

It’s a wonderful and sometimes strange feeling when one sees their artwork hanging on a gallery wall. For an artist, it’s what we all dream of. Visibility and the opportunity to share what we think.

As we’re talking, I see the parents and the other children moving around the gallery discussing the other works and taking photographs that will hopefully be shared with the extended family and perhaps on social media.

family admires environmental and frog art at 58 Gallery in Jersey City

The youngest of the children takes me around to show her favorite pictures and why. She’s about 4 years old and drawn to the cutest and friendliest of the pictures.

They all say how much they enjoyed the exhibition and will be sure to do more frog art next Fall.

Two young girls admire frog art

During the afternoon parents and children come by to see the student artworks but some people walk through the gallery on their way to a separate destination and do not even look at the walls, as if there is nothing there.

This baffles me and makes me wonder if there are some artists who think only their art is what’s important. Isn’t being an artist about appreciating self-expression, both your own and others?

Do seasoned artists think that because they are at a certain level of success, a young artist’s vision is of no consequence? Aren’t their artworks worth a look?

I believe that every person has the right to be seen and heard.

Having an appreciation of the arts (in its various forms, from dance and opera, to fine art and yes student frog artwork too) means stepping out of your own little world of self-expression and seeing what others have to say too.

Susan Newman, founder of Frogs Are Green hosted original Jersey City student frog art exhibit at 58 Gallery.

03/16/15

Signs of Spring

Here in New Jersey the wind still roars, but in North Carolina, wildlife photographer Wes Deyton shares the Spring Peepers and Painted Turtles that are in view now that it’s warming up.

Spring Peeper with full vocal sac by Wes Deyton

Spring Peeper with full vocal sac by Wes Deyton

As you can see from the photo above, the Spring Peeper has a fully extended vocal sac for calling, but as Wes came in closer, it began to retract.

Spring Peeper with retracting vocal sac by Wes Deyton.

Spring Peeper with retracting vocal sac by Wes Deyton.


 
Last night Wes was able to trek into the woods and capture this fantastic video of a Spring Peeper calling.

 

Also at Harris Lake in North Carolina are Painted Turtles.

Painted Turtle at Harris Lake in North Carolina, by wildlife photographer Wes Deyton

Painted Turtle at Harris Lake in North Carolina, by wildlife photographer Wes Deyton

 

Learn more about Spring Peepers here: Celebrating Spring Peepers 

and Frog Call of the Week: Spring Peepers

Click to see more of >> Wes Deyton’s wildlife photography