Restoring a lost voice to Spring's chorus

Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica)
Photo © Mick Micacchion/Ohio EPA

Vernal pool protection in Ohio

Ohio has lost over 90% of its original wetlands over the past 200 years.
Ninety-five percent of Ohio used to be covered by forests. This dropped to just 10% in the early 1900’s.
Salamanders and frogs breeding in vernal pools also need the surrounding forest to survive. Most of them use an area up to 200 meters from the pond as feeding and overwintering grounds, and for this reason forest and wetland protection need to be planned together.
The Nature Conservancy and the Ohio Environmental Council created the Ohio Vernal Pool Partnership, to encourage community-based conservation of vernal pools through education, partnerships, science, and the discovery of our natural world. Find out more at www.ovpp.org

Mick Micacchion and Deni Porej placing wood frog eggs at Blacklick Woods
Photo © Mick Micacchion/Ohio EPA

Project seeks to bring wood frogs back to Franklin County

Metro Parks provides habitat

Early spring is the time of year when the woods get wet, and the night air is filled with the sounds of singing frogs.

But Spring’s chorus has been missing one of its voices in Franklin County for more than a century, ever since intensive agricultural practices eliminated most of the forest cover, and with it the habitat for the wood frog.

A group of biologists are working to bring this frog’s song (mp3) of spring back to the woods surrounding Ohio’s capital city.

“These are animals that must have wet forests in order to reproduce. When we cut down all the trees and drained the land, the wood frogs disappeared,” said Dr. Deni Porej, The Nature Conservancy’s Agnes Andraea Director of Conservation Science.

Porej was one of the biologists who collected thousands of wood frog eggs from the Clear Creek Valley in Fairfield County and relocated them to three Metro Parks in Franklin County. Although small populations of wood frogs hung on in places like the metro parks, none has been heard or seen in at least 30 years, according to Mac Albin, the aquatic ecologist with the Metro Parks.

“They are the lost voices of Spring,” Albin says. “We’re trying to bring those voices back.”

Hear the sound of the wood frog: visit the amphibian identification page of the Ohio Vernal Pool Partnership.

Vernal Pool Habitat is Critical to Wood Frogs' Success

In recent decades, habitat protection and restoration efforts in the Metro Parks have created excellent conditions for the frogs, said Mick Micacchion, a wetland biologist for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

But frogs aren’t like birds, and can’t migrate back to an area across miles of farm fields and suburban lawns. They need help. And they got it in late March, when Albin, Micacchion and Porej worked with Ohio State University Professor Tom Hetherington to bring the wood frogs back to the woods.

The team, which included OSU graduate student Jennifer Sander, collected more than 150,000 wood frog eggs from Clear Creek Metro Park, Porej said. With the support of John Watts, the Resources Manager for Metro Parks, the eggs were carefully deposited in forested wetlands at Blacklick Woods, Sharon Woods, and Glacier Ridge.

Wood frogs – two-inch, brown frogs recognized by their dark “mask” over their eyes – live on dry land through most of the year but migrate in large numbers in the early spring to seasonally wet areas know as vernal pools. These intermittent wetlands, which appear in the spring but disappear later in the year, are critical to the breeding success of many frogs and salamanders. Vernal pools are highly threatened in Ohio, and the Conservancy has been working to protect them.

By working with partners like the Metro Parks and others, Porej said, the full range of plant and animal diversity can be restored to these seasonal pools, and the public can begin to hear what they’ve been missing.

“Wood frogs and spotted salamanders are the poster children for good woodland health,” Porej explained. “And besides, they’re the true harbinger of spring for Ohio’s woodlands.”

(Updated March 28, 2006)