Frog Watch

Amphibians are an important part of our abundant freshwater landscapes in Illinois, which include rivers, streams, ponds, lakes and wetlands. Frogs and toads, like other amphibians, have permeable sensitive skin, which makes them excellent indicators of habitat quality. Unfortunately, this also makes them very vulnerable to pollution in the environment, and these populations have seen significant declines in recent decades, so monitoring is more important than ever to help scientists document and understand these declines while researching solutions that help these populations recover.

The National Great Rivers chapter of Frog Watch trains individuals to identify frogs and toads based on their breeding calls; as part of the training, we will help you register and monitor a site of your choice. The program is a great way to get involved with community science, and you can do so as an individual, a family or a classroom. As part of the St. Louis region Frog Watch program, there are different levels of involvement from “Lite” to “Medium” to “High”. The St. Louis region website offers many resources for our volunteers and educators.

St. louis Frogwatch

Volunteers use a related website to enter their data while also providing platforms for data visualizations.

Frogwatch USA Visualizations