Frogwatching Tips

Bring Frogwatch to Your Community

There is good reason to focus on the health and future of your community. Volunteering benefits your entire community. Frogwatch USA provides benefits to the people of your community as well as the wildlife! Find out how you can maximize the various people and resources in your community to help the environment.

Local Partners:
Bring your community together to help with Frogwatch USA. Many assets found in your local area can provide assistance for your monitoring activities. In addition to working with friends and neighbors in your community, you can also seek assistance from or create partnerships with organizations.

Photo: NWF

Schools: Local schools, from elementary school to universities, can provide you with a variety of resources. Students to help with monitoring Rooms for meetings Information sources (books, science teachers, graduate students, biology professors, etc.)

Businesses:
Do you want to print a newsletter or t-shirts for your group project? Would you like to make a meeting announcement in your town newspaper? Local businesses can often provide support for your efforts. Looking to businesses in your area to help out is just another way to build partners within your community.

• Financial support
• In-kind gifts
• Specialized knowledge about the business's products or services

Local Government:
You town has many resources available that may help with your monitoring efforts. The local Planning Commission can provide you with information about the wetlands in your town. The Parks and Recreation Department may also be helpful in finding sites, providing assistance with organizing a larger monitoring effort, and may even have biologists that can provide you with information about your local frogs and toads.

• Site selection
• Local knowledge
• Partners for events

Not-for-profits:
Many non-profit organizations have missions that may align with the goals of Frogwatch USA. Conservation groups are obvious connections, but consider what other groups in your community might be willing to join forces for amphibian and habitat conservation. For example, an organization that fights childhood obesity might collaborate with you to get local students to work on a monitoring project by getting children outside and involved in listening for frogs and toads.

• Photo: NWF

  Grants
• Partners for events
• Information sources (local nature centers, Herpetological Societies, etc.)

Remember that effective partnerships need:

• Clearly stated goals
• Excellent, regular communication amongst partners
• Identified leaders from each group to function as liaisons
• Regular evaluation
• Benefits for all partners

So keep these needs in mind when working with the organizations and people in your community.

Full List of Easy Frogwatching Tips:

General Frogwatching Tips
Mapping your site made easy!
Name That Tune: Frog Calls
So Many Wetlands...How Do I Choose?
Safety First… Data Second
Bring Frogwatch to Your Community