“Trees, trees, trees” is often the message and image of the Green Seattle Partnership, but we work across the park system at sites that include wetlands, creeks, shorelines, and ponds. Our Forest stewards work along with the various critters at their sites and often times our restoration work result in the creation of more wildlife habitats (read about the Lizard Haven project here)!
We lean on our friends at Woodland Park Zoo to share knowledge about amphibian populations in the city, and to inform our restoration practices. Learn more about becoming a community scientist here!
Since 2012, the Woodland Park Zoo has been observing amphibians across western Washington with the support of Amphibian Monitoring community volunteers. Volunteers collect hundreds of observations at local conservation wetlands every year, many at parks in Seattle.
© mayaklem
Monitoring begins in January and wraps up late summer, this year volunteers will be monitoring the following parks in the City:
- Camp Long
- Carkeek Park
- Discovery Park – Wolf Tree Ponds
- Green Lake Park
- Magnuson Park
- Puget Park
- Washington Park Arboretum
Over the last several decades, amphibians have experienced the highest rate of species decline among vertebrate animals.
These losses have occurred due to impacts such as wetland loss, disease, pollutants, invasive species and climate change. Understanding the impact on our Pacific Northwest species helps biologists and conservationists plan for their survival.
© terrylou
In the most recent monitoring season, volunteers have found 6 different species in parks across across Snohomish and King counties, including frogs, salamanders, and even newts.
| SPECIES | NUMBER of OBSERVATIONS PER SPECIES |
| American Bullfrog | 43 |
| Amphibians (not identified to species) | 35 |
| Long-toed Salamander | 52 |
| Northern Pacific Tree Frog | 282 |
| Northern Red-legged Frog | 29 |
| Northwestern Salamander | 198 |
| Rough-skinned Newt | 7 |
| GRAND TOTAL | 646 |
With seven seasons of publicly available data (and data from the first five years, 2012-2016, of the project available upon request) found in the iNaturalist online collection, the Woodland Park Zoo can look at trends over time and flag notable changes to land managers and other relevant parties. We appreciate connecting the dots from their monitoring efforts to our GSP habitat restoration work, thinking about where and how we can continue to build quality homes for amphibians!
© Kale
Visit the Woodland Park Zoo’s blog page to learn more about amphibian monitoring and where amphibians can be observed. For specific data from across Western Washington, make sure to visit iNaturalist.