Saturday, May 28, 2011

Amphibians Indicate Successful Habitat Restoration

The absence of amphibians in a wetland area can be an indicator of habitat degradation.  On the flip side, the appearance of amphibians in a restored wetland area is a good sign that someone did something right.
Oregon Field Guide recently did an interesting segment about wetlands restoration in the Portland area.  The video below – about 8 and a half minutes in length – tells how volunteers are helping monitor the health of restored wetlands by looking for the egg masses of native frogs and salamanders.

From OPB:
The METRO regional government is restoring thousands of acres of natural space in the Portland metropolitan area. To track the success of these long-term efforts, they rely on volunteers to watch over the sensitive amphibians who breed in these areas during the Winter. We follow volunteer wildlife monitor Akiko Onuma from Hawaii as she marvels at the egg masses and gets a feel for Oregon’s chilly wetlands in February.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, I wish it were true! While the appearance of some (fairly sensitive) amphibians, after the larval period, is a sign of a successful wetland restoration, many other amphibians are pretty resilient and can live in all kinds of awful, polluted wetlands. Then you have the fact that the most sensitive reptiles and amphibians will refuse to migrate to the new habitat at all, and will have to physically be trapped and brought there.

    And sadly, many amphibian egg laying sites dry up before the tadpoles and other larvae are ready to move onto land.

    Too bad the video isn't available online!

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  2. Swamp Thing -

    Thanks for pointing out the error with the video. It wasn't working yesterday when I checked (even on the OPB site itself), but it seems to be working now.

    I'm no scientist, but here are my thoughts on your other comment...

    While I'm sure it's true that the appearance of ANY amphibians does not necessarily mean a wetland is pristine, I think the appearance of some native amphibians where there were previously none really is a sign that the habitat is on the right track.

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