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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing Article Summaries |
What's your Frog Quotient?By Mike Little Do you have frogs along your shoreline? Did you in the past? What's going on? Researchers in Wisconsin discovered that you can gauge the amount of development on a lake shore by counting the number of green frogs. That is the species Green Frog (Rana clamitans) not just any green frog (though most green frogs are Green Frogs). As development increases, the number of frogs per 100 feet of shoreline decreases. In Wisconsin, on undeveloped shoreline there was one frog per 126 feet of shore. On developed lakes, that drops to one frog per 220 feet of shore. And when people get really dense, only one frog for every 470 feet. So, back to my question: How many Green Frogs do you have along your shore? This might give you an idea of how developed your area is becoming. Of course the count can be affected by having a good wide vegetated buffer along the shore — the more natural appearing the shore, the more wildlife it will harbor. Were there frogs there when you were young? When, perhaps, there were fewer camps along your shore? Or the camps were used less often in the summer? One of the things we love about living next to a lake in Maine is the chance to be close to nature. Your vegetated buffer can serve as important wildlife habitat! The tragedy comes when too many people try to live "close to nature" and Nature is forced to live somewhere else. So, go out and count the frogs along your shore! And let's all work to make (and keep) our shores FROG FRIENDLY! Mike Little is executive director of the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance. He can be contacted at | ||