The North American Amphibian Monitoring Program is having a trouble finding volunteers in northern Vermont to help with the annual survey of frog populations.
Volunteers learn to recognize about a dozen different frogs by their spring calls, then go out on three evenings over three months to listen for the amphibians.
Scientists have been worried for a number of years about the global decline of frogs, salamanders and other amphibians — a puzzle that has been blamed on habitat destruction, disease, pesticide use and other possible causes.
Collecting background data on populations is an essential element in tracking species decline (or recovery) — the grunt work of science to which trained volunteers can contribute.
I’ll bet there are few Vermonters who can’t identify a spring peepers, but for the rest, the U.S. Geological Survey has excellent recordings of frog calls on line.
To learn more, go to
www.pwrc.usgs.gov/naamp/index.cfm . If you’d like to enlist,
send email to Vermont’s coordinator, Joe Przypek,
jjprzypek@yahoo.com. Among the routes still available are ones in Starksboro, St. Albans, Barre, Ryegate and Topsham.
Each spring volunteers tramp through the woods searching out vernal pool in order to record the numbers of frogs for the annual frog count. Data are collected using a calling survey technique, in which volunteers identify local amphibian species by their unique breeding vocalizations or calls. 
