<
https://www.hcn.org/issues/58-3/how-people-are-helping-breeding-frogs-dodge-cars/>
"The late-afternoon sky was surprisingly clear for December, the kind of
evening Portlanders revel in after days of rain. But for the half-dozen
volunteers gathered on Harborton Drive — a steep frontage road carved into a
bluff beside Highway 30, along the city’s northwestern riverfront — it wasn’t
ideal. Frogs, especially the ones they sought, prefer rain. But the crew’s
leaders remained hopeful: The road was still wet, and the warm temperature,
over 50 degrees, might lure the frogs out anyway.
All week, volunteers had met here at dusk, holding buckets and wearing
reflective vests with “FROGS” printed across the back. For the 13th winter in a
row, they aimed to prevent one of Oregon’s largest remaining populations of
northern red-legged frogs from crossing the four lanes of high-speed traffic on
Highway 30, just below them. Past the roadway, city lights reflected on the
Willamette River.
Every winter, this species — a reclusive, palm-sized amphibian that’s
considered “sensitive,” and thereby protected, under Oregon law — must cross
this highway to breed. Traversing up to three miles of the city each way, they
hop and slide from their forested upland habitat, under sword ferns in
undeveloped parkland, to their winter breeding grounds in the few surviving
seasonal wetlands along the river. Migrating just after dark in each direction
— they return upslope after laying eggs — they brave an urban rush hour twice
between December and March.
It was January 2013 when Harborton resident Rob Lee, 74, first realized what a
gantlet the animals were running. Lee was carpooling to a local environmental
group meeting one evening when he found himself helping the driver navigate a
sudden frenzy of frogs crossing Harborton. The next morning, Lee counted 60
carcasses on his barely trafficked road. He suspected that on Highway 30 below,
“they were getting obliterated.”
Lee contacted Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and the following
winter met a state biologist on Harborton to scoop up frogs and taxi them down
to the wetlands. “Then,” he said, “it dawned on us that we’re going to have to
take them back as well.”"
Via
Reasons to be Cheerful:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-were-reading-why-maga-suddenly-loves-solar/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
