Kip Hathaway, above, listens near Burnsville, Minnesota, for frog calls at dusk (You can take the frog audio ID below!). Starting in 2013, Kip joined Minnesota's annual frog census to help assess water pollution threats that degrade frog and toad habitat, killing and deforming many.
In 2021 the risk is even greater. The health of these aquatic habitats, waters, animals – and humans – is increasingly under threat.
Why? Our water and health are threatened by proposed rule changes to Minnesota's water quality standards from international mining companies who have no stake in Minnesota's life or cultures. These foreign businesses are only interested in our extractive economies – taking ores and money from our state while leaving citizens with cleanup costs, environmental degradation and imperiled health. Their polluting and destructive records around the world proves they are "fair-weather' employers -- here to take profits, gone to pay the cleanup price of reckless mining.
What could go wrong? Let's start by looking at these two infographics below for insight.
Why? Our water and health are threatened by proposed rule changes to Minnesota's water quality standards from international mining companies who have no stake in Minnesota's life or cultures. These foreign businesses are only interested in our extractive economies – taking ores and money from our state while leaving citizens with cleanup costs, environmental degradation and imperiled health. Their polluting and destructive records around the world proves they are "fair-weather' employers -- here to take profits, gone to pay the cleanup price of reckless mining.
What could go wrong? Let's start by looking at these two infographics below for insight.
Helloooo! I'm Kip!
Welcome to my High School Senior Service Project from 2013....with a 2021 Update!
I'm a lifelong creative, problem-solving Minnesotan who loves the natural health and beauty of our state, and I want to help preserve it for all of us. I am concerned about the health of aquatic organisms and water quality – especially by the February 2021 proposed changes to water quality standards from mining interests.
We have everything to lose: health of our waters, environment, human lives. Read about it in MinnPost here!
Welcome to my High School Senior Service Project from 2013....with a 2021 Update!
I'm a lifelong creative, problem-solving Minnesotan who loves the natural health and beauty of our state, and I want to help preserve it for all of us. I am concerned about the health of aquatic organisms and water quality – especially by the February 2021 proposed changes to water quality standards from mining interests.
We have everything to lose: health of our waters, environment, human lives. Read about it in MinnPost here!
To hear frogs and test your knowledge, click the NAAMP quiz picture.
Our school service requirement is intended to help us improve the community by doing 30 hours of meaningful volunteer work that contributes to improving conditions of something we care about.
I care about clean water and frogs, and have since my brother and I were little and would investigate the local rivers and ponds we could bike to around our neighborhood for fish, frogs, saladmanders, ducks and geese. We skipped a lot of rocks, too. So it seemed natural that for my school service project I should enroll in the 2013 Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Minnesota Frog & Toad Calling Survey. Its goal is to try to monitor the health of the state's 14 species of frogs and toads by taking a "sound census" to get a general idea of how strong the populations are. To do this, I studied the frogs and toads that live in the state; learned to identify them by sound and then took a national test to get certified as a reliable call identifier--and I passed with a ribbeting 86% detection rate, though I'm a lot better now. Once I could identify the frogs by sound, I did field studies at sites the DNR assigned by listening for them and assessing population strength based on sound volume. I recorded my observations for the DNR to tabulate. Their data base helps provide evidence for managing state waters--and as you can see from recent water pollution reports, we need help! Frogs and toads are a start. Listening is a start, and something everyone can do. |
The 21st Annual Minnesota Frog and Toad Call Survey
www.pca.state.mn.us/frogs-minnesota Since 1996, volunteers around Minnesota have been taking a "sound census" of the state's frog and toad populations. In the spring of my senior year in 2013, I joined them to do field work. This handy guide, Frog and Toad Opera, to who is calling when in Minnesota will help you know what to expect. Thanks, DNR!
This audio link to frog calls will help you train your ear so you can identify species correctly: The Frog Survey ended a few years ago, but I continue to root for Minnesota water health more than ever! We www.pca.state.mn.us/frogs-minnesota are doing this because nearly 30 years ago, lots of deformed frogs were being found in Minnesota. It was a sign of water pollution and environmental degradation that the frogs were signaling. As amphibians, they are really sensitive to water pollution. They are immersed in water from the earliest developmental stages, eggs to hatch! They are deformed by by pollutants in water. For the field portion of the survey, I went out to 10 sites the DNR assigned me in Scott County, Minnesota, two times during dates the DNR specified in April and May. Out in the field at dusk, the time when calling strength is highest, I identified what species of frogs and toads were calling, and also estimated the numbers of animals calling. I ranked call strength on the nationwide system, where 1 is a single call, 2 means I heard multiple callers and 3 is really loud chorusing-- a big gleeful frog and toad racket that is just great to hear! Get out at dusk and you'll see what I mean! To learn more about the survey and its 24 year history of collecting valuable environmental data, go to http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteering/frogtoad_survey/index.html 
Email us here: [email protected] to receive a free, downloadable PDF template on which to illustrate or compose your feelings about Lake Superior and Minnesota's water legacy all must protect..
Send your masterpiece to us and we'll post in a gallery!
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