There is a growing concern about the worldwide decline of amphibian populations, and the southeastern U.S. represents one of the world’s most diverse regions for amphibians. Amphibians, which include frogs, toads and salamanders, inhabit various wetland habitats and are sensitive to environmental stressors.   Because of these life history requirements, amphibians are excellent indicator species to monitor changes in ecosystem health, including water quality and other environmental factors that may also affect humans.   Because amphibians generally have a two-staged life cycle consisting of both aquatic(larvae) and terrestrial(adult) phases, they are sensitive to both terrestrial and aquatic environmental effects. Because their skins are highly permeable, they may be more susceptible to toxins in the environment than other organisms such as birds or mammals.
Conservation efforts have been created by several organizations such as Amphibian Conservation Alliance (ACA) and the World Wildlife Fund to help further studies on frog extinction and educate people on the issue at hand.  The Amphibian Conservation Alliance was a federally tax-exempt 501(c)(3) U.S. nonprofit education and advocacy organization founded in California in 1997 in response to scientific concern about widespread scientific reports of amphibian population declines and malformations. It was the first organization solely dedicated to amphibian conservation to establish a professional policy advocacy program, and it operated successfully from 1997 to 2005 in Berkeley, California and Washington, D.C.

In 2013, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Southeast Region Inventory and Monitoring Network partnered with the National Park Service (NPS) Southeast Coast Network to pilot their amphibian community monitoring protocol on the Roanoke River Refuge. National Park Service Biologist Briana Smrekar is training USFWS biologists to implement the pilot.  Automatic Recording Devices (ARDs) which are used to record frog and toad calls, were deployed at 12 randomly selected locations on the refuge.  Also, visual encounter surveys that incorporated dip-net and other sampling techniques were conducted within half hectare plots around each ARD. This ongoing pilot was performed to estimate time, cost, and work-load involved in performing amphibian community monitoring on National Wildlife Refuges. The ARDs will be collected in June 2013. This summer, the recordings of frog calls will be analyzed and identified with the Wildlife Acoustic’s Song Scope program. A final report will be available in September. To learn more about this pilot, please contact USFWS I&M Network terrestrial biologist, Wendy Stanton.