01/6/15

Winners of the 2014 Frogs in the Wild Photography Contest

Announcing the winners of the 2014 Frogs in the Wild Photography Contest hosted by Frogs Are Green!

I want to thank this year’s judges: Sigrid Shreeve, Christine Guhl, Megan Maloy, Sam Skolnik Mullane, Alyssa Bredin, Keith Gisser, and Andy Levine.

1st Place Winner: 2014 Frogs in the Wild by Wes Deyton of North Carolina.

2014 Frogs in the Wild 1st place winner, Wes Deyton of North Carolina.

2nd Place Winner: 2014 Frogs in the Wild, Beni Arisandi with “KONG,” Sumedang, West Java, Indonesia.

2014 Frogs in the Wild, 2nd place winner, Beni Arisandi with KONG.

3rd Place Winner: 2014 Frogs in the Wild Golden Droplet Frog by Christian Spencer. Taken in Itatiaia National Park rio de Janerio Brasil. Brachycephalus ephippium, one of the smallest frogs in the world measuring 12mm makes signals with its arms to mark territory.

2014 Frogs in the Wild, 3rd place winner, Golden Droplet Frog by Christian Spencer.

Honorable Mention: 2014 Frogs in the Wild, Frog by Matthew Pastick, Minnesota, USA.

2014 Frogs in the Wild, Honorable Mention, Frog by Matthew Pastick, Minnesota, USA.

Honorable Mention: 2014 Frogs in the Wild, Devin DePamphilis, age 13 with Seeing Green at Wildwood Park, Harrisburg, PA.

2014 Frogs in the Wild, Honorable Mention, Devin DePamphilis, age 13 with Seeing Green at Wildwood Park, Harrisburg, PA.

Honorable Mention: 2014 Frogs in the Wild, green and golden bell frog by Chad Beranek, Australia.

2014 Frogs in the Wild, Honorable Mention, green and golden bell frog by Chad Beranek, Australia.

To see the 56 fabulous entries visit:  2014 Frogs in the Wild Photo Contest on Flickr.

– Susan Newman, founder and administrator of Frogs Are Green

12/28/14

Frog Photography and Frog Art from Around the World

The 14 judges are currently reviewing the entries submitted for the 2014 contests. There are so many incredible entries from across Jersey City, New Jersey, the United States and 32 countries around the world. The winners will be announced in January, 2015.

Here is the collected data for the 2014 Frogs Are Green Kids Art Contest: 973 Entries

32 Countries entered the 2014 Frogs Are Green Kids Art Contest

Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, England, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirate, and USA.

17 States from across the USA entered the 2014 Frogs Are Green Kids Art Contest

Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.

5 Cities in New Jersey entered the 2014 Frogs Are Green Kids Art Contest

Hoboken, Jersey City, Montclair, Piscataway, and South Brunswick.

16 Schools in Jersey City and Hoboken entered the 2014 Frogs Are Green Kids Art Contest

McNair Academic High School, PS #5, PS #23, MS #4, PS #3, PS #33, PS #28, MS #38, Golden Door Charter School, PS #25, PS #21, MS #7, Liberty High School, PS #31, Hoboken Catholic Academy, and the Hoboken Charter School.

Here is the collected data for the 2014 Frogs Are Green Photography Contests:

16 Countries entered the two 2014 Photography contests “Backyard Frogs” (34 entries) and “Frogs in the Wild” (56 entries)

Australia (NSW), Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, England, Germany, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Sri Lanka, and USA.

9 States in the USA entered the 2014 Frogs Are Green photography contests: “Backyard Frogs” and “Frogs in the Wild”

Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Below are the links to the 3 Flickr galleries, if you would like to see the imagery.

2014 Frogs Are Green Kids Art Contest

2014 Backyard Frogs Photo Contest

2014 Frogs in the Wild Contest

Thank you so much for your participation and good luck to all who entered! We would love to hear from the teachers and students! Tell us what you learned about frogs and amphibians! Tell us about the art mediums and techniques you used. If you’d like to post a video to the Frogs Are Green Facebook wall, we’d love to hear from you!

– Susan Newman, founder, Frogs Are Green, Inc. – A New Jersey nonprofit organization

12/4/14

Building Reach, Near and Far

We know that if we build a web presence with the right SEO (search engine optimization) over time we will reach those who are searching for what we are offering.

But what if your target audience isn’t looking for what you’re doing? How can we reach them?

This is the 5th year of the Frogs Are Green Kids Art Contest, so naturally those who have entered in the past are aware and may enter again. In addition, some parents and kids in countries around the world may be watching what other countries are doing and then get into the action as well. In the past 5 years we have received thousands of entries from more than 27 countries! When people are looking for something specific on the web and the right SEO is in place, those pages are found.

For example, Hong Kong has entered many beautiful artworks over the past few years, but this year in addition to the entries from China, we received entries from Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia. Last year we received some amazing art from Estonia, and this year from England, Ireland, Denmark, and Romania. Information can spread to new areas when we consistently push it out there and when the public is actively looking for it and then shares it, pushing it even further.

But the question today is how do we reach the ones nearby?

kids drawing frogs in park jersey city

The answer is by introducing people to real-time situations where they are learning new things. If we want children who live in urban areas to understand nature and why saving frogs is important, we need to bring them to the source, yes bring them to nature. How can we expect children who live in urban environments to care about wildlife when it is somewhat foreign to them? This is why many classrooms today have class pets. So children can be directly involved in the health and well-being of those animals. But there is nothing better than showing them the animals’ true habitat.

Last Spring, Frogs Are Green made a presentation to 60 first-graders at the Learning Community Charter School in Jersey City, showing them both frog art from around the world and a slideshow of some of the most unusual frogs. They learn about frogs and amphibians as part of their school curriculum and they already knew quite a bit and were very enthusiastic about the topic.

During 2014 we developed a new six-week curriculum, “Frogs, Amphibians and their Threatened Environment – Discovery and Expression through Art” which is available for download, under the education tab on our website.

During the summer and early fall, we had set up tables at quite a few community fairs and events so children could stop by, sit down and draw frogs with the art supplies we laid out. Children love to create and don’t need that much encouragement once engaged. They just need the right guidance from teachers and parents. We also know that children love animals. Many have pets at home, but it’s not the same as seeing those animals in nature.

If we want children to care about nature, we must show it to them, through field trips and when they see the real thing it will lead them to care what happens in the future.

What’s cool is that even in urban areas there are parks, such as our own Liberty State Park. Imagine the fantastic discovery students might have by seeing everything from frogs to birds, and more if they just went there with an educator.

We see a sharing cycle of teachers educating children, who bring that information home and tell their parents, who then share that with other parents, who share it with their kids and on to community leaders.

The key is getting those sparks of information and creativity started in the right places and making sure the people you want to reach are receiving it.

by Susan Newman, founder

12/4/14

Frogs Are Good For Your Garden

Frogs and toads are some of nicest critters you can attract in your garden as they can improve it great deal. They have true and undeniable value but are threatened by the constant increase of urbanization. Their habitats are shrinking at an alarming rate and thus reducing their chance of survival.

frogs and toads in your garden

So why not take steps in inviting them in your garden today? For one thing, they are amazing pest control predators. They feed on insects, such as cutworms, caterpillars, sow bugs and many more that can do harm to your garden. There have been reports of entire gardens destroyed by these bugs for a single night, and anything that can help prevent that from happening is to be loved and preferred over other animals. A single frog can eat over a hundred harmful insects a day, which is really a lot and enough in most cases to help you control this threat.

In order to ensure that frogs can perform their duty, you will need to create a suitable habitat for them. During the day, they like to sit under shady and cool areas, such as under trees and other high plants. There are many solutions that can be implemented in your garden which will offer not only proper shelter for frogs, but will also give your garden an innovative look. These animals also require water, so a pond of some sort is needed. Many professional and reliable gardeners share the opinion that there is nothing quite like having a garden pond in your backyard. It needs to have shallow edges to allow the amphibians to enter and leave as they please.

Toads and frogs can be a garden’s best friend and save you the need to spray with pesticides and other chemicals to protect from insects. If you like the calming and sometimes gentle sound of frogs, then smile the next time you see one in your garden.

Guest blog by Ella Andrews

11/18/14

Attracting Newts to Your Pond

Encouraging newts to your garden pond will add life and color that can be seen for much of the year. You should never remove them from the wild but there are a few steps you can take to invite them to take up residence in your pond.

Newts not only add life to the pond, they also eat algae. So they provide a natural solution to a common problem. As they are most active during the warmer months of the year, when algae is rifer, they can be a real help. Of course other natural remedies such as Barley Straw will help too.

The best way to invite newts into your garden is to create the ideal habitat. A natural pond without fish is the best environment, as they will eat newt eggs and spawn.

baby newt

Build a loose rockery around or near the pond. This will provide them with shelter to live and breed. The cool, damp, atmosphere is ideal for newts, and will encourage slugs and insects, a good food source. If you want to feed the newts, then you can add bloodworm, daphnia or brine shrimp to the water, a good retailer will have a wide range of pond foods.

Adding plants such as water mint or water forget-me-nots are small but have wide leaves which are perfect for newts to lay and hide their eggs in. Reed plants are also great to promote natural behaviors. The eggs have a jelly like texture, which newts wrap up in leaves to protect them.

Newts are most active from March/April, and you should see babies appear from June to August. From then on, you will notice that they start to disappear, as they mostly hibernate throughout the winter, until around February. During this time, try not to rearrange the rockery or do too much work around the area, as this will disturb the newts.

Children will no doubt be very interested in the new addition to your pond, and it’s a great way to promote a love of nature. However always supervise your children around these slippery creatures, and ensure that if they do pick a newt up, that they do so very gently and with wet hands. Don’t allow the newts to be taken away from the area, or held for more than a few minutes.

You may find that not only newts arrive, but that frogs and toads appear too. As they thrive in similar environments. They can live well together and create a beautifully natural area of wildlife in your garden.

Newt in garden

Don’t worry if newts don’t start to arrive, despite the lovely home you have created. It may take time for them to appear and breed. If your local environment has changed, such as new roads, building sites etc., this may affect the migration of newts too. Leaving the pond and its inhabitants to its own devices will encourage the most natural behaviors and results.

10/9/14

Robin Moore, Conservationist, Photographer and Author of In Search of Lost Frogs

Exclusive!

Tune in tomorrow, October 10, 2014 at 3pm EST and meet…

Robin Moore, conservationist, photographer and author of “In Search of Lost Frogs.”

*** Now Replaying *** The podcast interview is here:
Webcast: Robin Moore interviewed by Susan Newman

Follow the event and comment on Facebook:

Robin Moore Interview on Facebook with Susan Newman (aka Suzy Brandtastic)

Robin Moore, Conservationist, Photographer, and Author of In Search of Lost Frogs

About Robin Moore:

Robin Moore is a conservationist, photographer and the author of In Search of Lost Frogs (In Search of Lost Frogs).

Since gaining a PhD in biodiversity conservation, Robin has been a powerful voice for amphibian conservation.

He is a Conservation Officer with Rainforest Trust, Global Wildlife Conservation and the Amphibian Survival Alliance, the largest global partnership for amphibian conservation.

He is a proud Senior Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (www.ilcp.com), represented by National Geographic Creative, and recently Co-Founded Frame of Mind (www.frameofmind.org), an initiative that empowers youth around the world to connect with their natural and cultural worlds through photography and visual.

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About Suzy Brandtastic interviews:

Susan Newman, an environmentalist and brand visibility designer knows how important it is to tell your “why.” Susan hosts a podcast series, live action video series and a written interview series, all featuring environmentalists, innovators, creatives and small business owners.