I recently discovered Sage Hill Herb Farm in Petersburg, Tennessee and the owner, Bea Kunz.
About the Farm Sage Hill Herb Farm consist of three acres under cultivation. A mix of wild flowers and grasses, much of those are native to Tennessee. Many raised beds which are always planted and growing vegetables and herbs along with fruit trees and berries for family and friends.
Their teas, herbs and seasoning blends are all carefully hand tended and organically grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers.
They recommend that deep red or bright pink fruits and vegetables should be eaten every day. Nutrition research shows that foods in the red groups contain phytochemicals, such as lycopene and anthocyanins. Phytochemicals, substances found only in plants, help your body fight disease and promote good health.
Bogs and Frogs
And then there is the Bog! A beautiful and intriguing spot on the lower section of the back area where natural rock jutes through the ground. A wet weather stream keeps the area wet most of the time… providing a safe and natural habitat for frogs, toads and other little creatures who might come and go.
Below is a gallery shared by Bea of an American Toad, Green Tree Frog and Eastern Spadefoot and their natural habitat.
American Toad at Sage Hill Farm in Tennessee
Bog at Sage Hill Farm in Tennessee
Eastern Spadefoot frog at Sage Hill Farm in Tennessee
Below is a written interview with Ilah Rose Hickman, who fought for the Idaho State Amphibian, the Idaho Giant Salamander. I was also fortunate to interview Ilah on my Suzy Brandtastic podcast series. Since writing this interview the bill passed and Idaho now has a State Amphibian!
Please tell us a bit about your mission and goals…
I started my legislative journey in 4th grade when we learned about Idaho history in social studies. In the unit on Idaho state symbols, our teacher gave us an assignment to create a new symbol and then write a mock letter to our legislator and ask them to support the proposed symbol. When I went home that day I told my Mom I wanted to propose a new symbol for real, and not just for a mock assignment. So that’s how it all began!
What is your educational background and what lead to this mission?
I am now in 8th grade at Les Bois Junior High in Boise Idaho. Ever since that fourth grade assignment, I have been determined to have a new state symbol designated in Idaho. In fourth grade I learned that many other states had a state amphibian or reptile designated, but Idaho did not. So I decided to research amphibians and reptiles, and also found out who my representatives were in the legislature and wrote to them. My district Senator met with me in the summer before 5th grade and recommended I pick one symbol, so after my research I decided to choose the Idaho Giant Salamander as a state amphibian. In 6th grade I had a committee hearing in the House but the bill did not go any further than that. In 7th grade the bill started in the Senate, and it passed all the way through the full Senate but then the House committee ran out of time and I did not get a hearing there.
Now this year the bill was given a committee hearing in January, and they voted against sending it to the full House for a vote. But then last week the committee Chairman called us and said they had “revived” the Bill and yesterday it went to full House for a vote and passed 51-17. Now I am hoping it gets to the Senate before the legislature adjourns this session.
Of the 15 amphibians native to Idaho, I chose the Idaho Giant Salamander because it has “Idaho” in its name, it resides almost exclusively in Idaho (and just a sliver of adjacent Montana) and the marbled brown pattern on the adult’s skin looks like a topographical map of the Idaho Bitterroot mountains. Other native amphibians like frogs and toads are already designated as amphibians in other states, and many of them live in widespread areas beyond Idaho.
What are some challenges you have faced and how did you deal with them?
I have had to learn patience! I have had to wait a whole year multiple times because once the bill “dies” or is “killed” by a committee, you are done for that year and have to wait for the next session. Also, many legislators have said no to my bill. But every time they have said no it has pushed me forward by encouraging me to come back the following year and be better prepared to persuade them better to get an “aye” vote. Last summer I went to a “salamander” camp with a local biology professor and his students to capture, tag, collect data, and release Idaho Giant Salamanders in a stream near the Lochsa River. This really helped me in my testimony to the committee this year. And after the House committee voted against sending it to the full House for a vote this session, I sent letters to a lot of 4th grade teachers in the districts of those legislators who voted no, and told the about the bill, their legislator’s “no” vote, and reasons they could support the bill and asked them to write their legislators. I think that kind of statewide support from other students and educators helped a bill like mine.
What can people do to help? Donate and contribute to your cause? Other ideas?
Throughout this 5 year process, I have had many students, teachers, and other residents write letters to the representatives of their districts in support of this bill. Even young students in first or second grade have drawn pictures of salamanders and sent them to their legislators. If someone lives in Idaho they can write their legislator and ask them to support the Bill. I also have a Facebook page set up to keep people (in and out of Idaho) up to date on what’s happening with the Bill.
How do you reach your targeted audience? Is it through your website, advertising or social media or another route? Which is most effective and why?
I use my Facebook page to communicate with supporters, and over the years I have emailed lots of teachers and asked them to support the bill by having their students write to their legislators. At my own school I have had a ballot box in the library, and my Earth Science class wrote letters of support. I visited a 4th grade class here in Boise and told them about my experience, and I’ve been interviewed on a few radio stations here in Idaho to talk about my bill.
How do you keep the audience engaged over time?
Each year I have learned more about the legislative process, the politics involved, and I keep learning more and more about the salamander as well. Scientists and other amphibian fans contact me with research, stories and other data that has helped me strengthen my arguments for this bill, and I try to communicate all of this to the supporters of the bill by Facebook, and in my testimony, and other interviews.
Tell us about your events around the world and some of the campaigns you have started.
What is in the works for the future? What haven’t you yet tackled, but will want to do soon?
This week I am working hard to get the Bill to the Senate floor before they adjourn for the year. I am 50 percent done and am hoping to get it passed this year!!! If the Bill does not get through the Senate, I will be back next year. I also hope to get to go back to “salamander camp” in the summer with the biology professor because that was so educational and a lot of fun!
Would you like to add anything not discussed above?
I have been passionate about this project because once I begin something, I like to see it through to the end. And so I want to keep going with this until the Bill passes. I also really love all animals
and learning about them. And once I learned about the Idaho Giant Salamander, I just thought it was such a cool animal because “amphibian” means double life, and this one is so special and unique to Idaho. Salamanders in general are valuable in areas like medical research (because they regenerate lost limbs),
climate control (because they contribute to the forest carbon cycle), and are different than any other animal state symbol we already have.
Each year as Earth Day approaches, Frogs Are Green goes into high gear.
Sunday, April 19, we celebrated with our local (and not so local) area, as many came out on a beautiful spring day to the Pershing Field Vietnam Veterans Memorial Community Center in Jersey City Heights, to see the winning artworks done by children around the world.
Visit this link to see the whole gallery of the event on Facebook: 2nd Annual Green Dream
Pictured above is Laura Skolar, President of Pershing Field Garden Friends; Jersey City, City Council President Rolando Lavarro, Jr. and Me.
We’ve published our “Frogs, Amphibians and Their Threatened Environment” six-week curriculum book on Amazon and Createspace!
Pick it up here >> Frog and Art Curriculum
We have two new awesome posters: one for “Saving the Bees” with a gorgeous micro close-up by wildlife photographer, Wes Deyton… and our adorable “Naturally FROGADELIC” illustrated by the always original, Mary Ann Farley.
Visit our shop here: Frogs Are Green Shop
Earth Day Buzz – Save the Honeybee – Photograph courtesy of Wes Deyton.
Naturally Frogadelic – Earth Day Poster 2015 by Susan Newman, founder, Frogs Are Green; Illustration courtesy of Mary Ann Farley.
We also want to share that our favorite Frog author, Irwin Quagmire Wart has written a new book and you can pick up a free download 4/21 – 4/25: >> Green Is Good
On Saturday, April 25th, Frogs Are Green will visit Liberty State Park’s Earth Day Festival and Sunday, April 26th, we will have a tent/table at the Earth Day festival in front of Jersey City’s City Hall! Children will be able to sit and draw pictures of frogs and nature. Art supplies and frog/amphibian reference on hand.
Swing by and visit us and have a fabulous EARTH DAY (week) and Happy Save The Frogs Day too!
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.
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.
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 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
This report comes from Frances 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.
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I sent this query along to a few experts and here are their responses:
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
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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.
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.
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.
