Page 4 * The ST. JOHNS REVIEW * #6 March 25, 2016 * Email: reviewnewspaper@gmail.com * Mail: PO Box 83068, Port. OR 97283 * Web: www.stjohnsreview.com * Phone: 503-283-5086
A Day in the Life of a Red-Legged Frog Migration Volunteer
By Barbara Quinn
D
usk hadn’t even arrived when
the crew leader for Thursday,
St. Johns neighbor Jeff Booth,
arrives in his pickup. We drive
across the St. Johns bridge to Lin-
nton and he shifts down sharply to
begin the steep climb up a narrow
road overlooking the river to a des-
tination house where supplies are
stored for nightly volunteers. We
load the back of the truck with 5
gallon buckets and drive to our
rendezvous points, a Linnton road
ascending from Highway 30 and
a lower road adjacent to the wet-
lands where migrating frogs are
heading. Buckets are unloaded
and as dusk falls, we don refl ective
vests and headlamps and begin un-
rolling “the curtain” a 200 ft. long
cloth attached to the guardrail that
temporarily befuddles the migrat-
ing red-legged frogs long enough
to catch them—usually. The frogs’
drive to reach the wetlands below
to procreate is so powerful and
single-minded that the curtain
will eventually be overcome as
they scale it or i nd a way under it.
Several of the arriving volunteers
patrol the curtain. My assignment
is the 80 ft. section of road near-
est Highway 30 with no curtain
while anoth-
er volunteer
records its
sex. I end
up catching
around 20
frogs over
a
couple
hours and
meet some
interesting
volunteers
before bum-
and a steep embankment above
and below it—a free-for-all for the
instinct-driven little amphibians.
My job should I care to accept it,
is to stop frogs from reaching the
highway by catching them and
placing them in a bucket to be
later be shuttled by pickup down
the hill past the road, highway
and two active rail tracks safely to
the ponds below. The red-leggeds
only move after dark and only in
certain weather conditions. It must
be rainy or at least wet and warm,
around 45 degrees. My eyes sweep
the road to perceive any movement
in the twilight though the frogs
will freeze if they sense danger.
And move the do. Faster than one
would guess. When I see a dark,
leaping shape sprinting toward the
highway, I rush to intercept, only
to watch the critter divert sideways
into a roadside puddle, where he
watches me intently with only
his head visible. I easily scoop
up my i rst catch of the night. As
our buckets i ll with a dozen or
so frogs, a volunteer lifts the lid
and carefully examines each frog
ming a ride home.
Interestingly, the frogs started
moving early this year. December
6th, in fact, saw a virtual stam-
pede of the critters with 380 frogs
caught on that night alone neces-
sitating calls to all volunteers for
help. There were literally frogs
falling off the steep embankment
onto the highway.
Every animal caught counts
because red-legged frogs are in
“sensitive” status in Oregon due to
rapidly declining numbers. They
are endangered in California. The
main reasons are urbanization,
habitat loss, sensitivity to con-
taminants, and most relevant in
Linnton, road mortality. The effort
to help the migrating frogs start-
ed in 2013 when neighbors, Rob
Lee and Shawn Looney, noticed
massive numbers of frogs moving
on the roads at night and became
concerned with the numbers of
deaths due to autos. They enlisted
Jane Hartline of Sauvie Island and
together the citizen naturalists or-
ganized volunteers in an effort to
help the frogs safely reach the wet-
land until a better solution can be
reached. Grant monies are being
sought to create ponds on the hill-
side above the highway that may
keep the frogs from being killed
on the roads. Other solutions have
been discussed, but as Sue Beilke,
a volunteer biologist with Oregon
Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, points
out, the wetlands below Forest
Park are an important and rich
habitat that has served the frogs
for thousands of years and would
be hard to replace. The deadly ob-
stacles humans have put in their
way are relatively new.
To celebrate the end of the red-
legged frog migration season, over
40 volunteers met at the Linnton
Community Center on March 13
for a dinner of homemade chili,
salad and wine. This year, the spir-
ited participants formed teams as-
signed one day of the week. Each
team’s leader monitored weather
conditions and signaled for volun-
teers as needed. Some volunteered
many nights, some only a few,
and some remained on standby for
the entire season. Nonetheless, all
were welcomed and gathered to
celebrate the grand total of 990
frogs safely moved down to the
wetland and back up to the forest
again. Team leaders will monitor
the roads during prime conditions
for another few nights to make
sure there are no late-to-the-party
frogs. All said, it was a successful
season and volunteers are hopeful
that less mortality means a more
sustained population of red-legged
frogs in the area.
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