Amphibian Monitoring at the Reserve

In the summer of 2022, I met Paula Mackay, freelance journalist and carnivore ecologist with the Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ). She wrote an elegant article in Tideland magazine (Rewilding Bloedel: Cultivating Pollinators and Other Native Wildlife) about the Buxton Bird Marsh and Pollinator Meadow landscape renovation project. During a conversation about our work, she told me about Living Northwest, a suite of WPZ conservation initiatives in western Washington, and my interest was immediately piqued.

Haley Wiggins and volunteers Kathryn Arnold, Iwona Sakrejda, Melissa Rockefeller, and Michele Perras making observations at the Reflection Pool, January 2024.

One of the initiatives Paula told me about was a very popular amphibian monitoring project developed by Living Northwest. While staff members Katie Remine (Conservation Manager) and Brianna Wilder (Community Science Specialist) provide trainings, data storage, data quality control, and coordination, volunteers collect all of the monitoring data and do all of the data entry into iNaturalist. Certified biologists can then confirm the identities of frog and salamander observations made by the citizen scientists.

iNaturalist is a global repository of observations of almost any kind of living, multi-cellular organism. As of February 27, 2025 more than 225 million biological observations have been uploaded and shared on the platform. Many of these observations are considered “research grade” if they’ve been verified by relevant experts, which means this data can be used to study biodiversity at small and large spatial scales. The amphibian data being collected in the WPZ’s iNaturalist project (Amphibians of Washington – check it out!) is an invaluable resource for conservation ecologists, environmental planners, and communities interested in protecting local fauna. Amphibian population dynamics in our region are poorly understood, and citizen scientists have the power to collect abundant data over large areas, allowing for the study of long-term trends across the region and within sub-regions.

Field practicum at the Reflection Pool with volunteers from BILT, IslandWood, and Bloedel Reserve on January 29, 2025.

Amphibians are of particular conservation interest because they are indicators of ecosystem health, being reliant on and sensitive to changes in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. Robust populations of salamanders and frogs provide strong evidence that an area has high-quality, functional habitat. Declining amphibian populations suggest that environmental conditions are also in decline, and understanding those dynamics can help prioritize conservation efforts within an area.

The Living Northwest amphibian monitoring protocol involves three-hour-long surveys once a month from January through June. Volunteers search for egg masses, larvae, tadpoles and adults in the same wetland or pond each month, taking pictures of the organism and recording details such as size, quantity, and color. Before Bloedel got involved in 2023, study sites were all located in King and Snohomish Counties. Our first season was a trial using our staff only, mainly Darren Strenge (Gardens West Manager) and myself doing surveys in the Buxton Bird Marsh. We soon realized we’d need significant volunteer support and were fortunately able to recruit four volunteers for the 2024 season. With staff members Kate Sunderland (Volunteer Coordinator) and Audrey Harmon (Development Manager) getting involved as well, we had enough hands to survey the Reflection Pool in addition to the marsh.

We had great success and interesting findings in 2024! Finding more native amphibians than any of the teams on the Seattle side of the water was not very surprising, because we have high-quality wildlife habitat across the grounds and most of the other sites are closer to and more impacted by urban development. However, we were surprised to record more observations in the highly modified Reflection Pool than in the bird marsh, a natural area dominated by native vegetation. One hypothesis we have for this finding is that the bird marsh is wilder and probably has a greater density of predators. We also found that while this work is meaningful and important to local conservation, it’s also super fun! The joy of finding an egg mass, tadpole, frog or salamander is real, and excited squeals are often heard to prove it. Participating in the project is rewarding and provides a new way to experience the outdoors generally and Bloedel Reserve specifically.

Long-toed salamander egg mass, found in the Reflection Pool on January 27, 2025.

After a fantastic 2024 season, we managed to recruit seven more volunteers and staff horticulturist Ann Mackey, allowing for us to include a third pond, the Mid Pond, in our monthly 2025 surveys on the Reserve. In addition, over the winter we contacted Megan Rohrssen, Community Education Coordinator at Bainbridge Island Land Trust (BILT), and Christina Woolf, Senior Naturalist and Community Education Manager at IslandWood, to see if their organizations wanted to join the effort. Both jumped at the opportunity and after coordinating trainings and project administration tasks, teams are now surveying two wetland sites at IslandWood and two BILT properties. Our goal is to get folks doing amphibian monitoring all over the island and eventually expanding to the Kitsap Peninsula.

We want to close by expressing sincere gratitude for our Bloedel Reserve amphibian monitoring volunteers: Iwona Sakrejda, Kathryn Arnold, Melissa Rockefeller, Michele Perras, Stefan Gaschot, Charleen Hern, Stephanie and Zooey Siegh, McKenna Roots, Marianne Schovsbo, and Kristina Case. Thank you all for your time, positive energy, and commitment!

–Written by Haley Wiggins, Gardens South Manager