Agencies search for reasons for amphibian decline (GPRA)--National Park Service--WASO-INFO





					by Kathy A. Tonnessen and Gary Williams
					When deformed frogs make the front page of the Washington Post (9/30/96), we know that amphibians have captured the interest and concern of the public. Since 1995, when reports of frogs and toads with missing limbs and extra body parts started coming in, federal agencies such as the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have launched efforts to find out the extent and causes of amphibian deformities and population declines. Thus, 1998 became the unofficial “year of the amphibian," with both the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program and the NPS-EPA Park Research and Intensive Monitoring of Ecosystems Network (PRIMENet) initiating activities to better characterize amphibian populations in parks. During the year, the Inventory and Monitoring Program started inventories of amphibians and reptiles in 13 parks, and it plans to fund inventories in an additional 13 parks out of the FY 1999 Inventory and Monitoring Program budget. The participating parks' natural resource staffs have joined with university and federal agency scientists to devise plans for carrying out these biological inventories and to come up with preliminary strategies for monitoring populations through time. Only with long-term data sets will the parks be able to determine changes in amphibian numbers that are caused by either natural factors or human-related stresses, such as climate change, habitat alteration, exotic species, UV radiation, and contaminants. PRIMENet had already funded development of amphibian monitoring methods in Big Bend and Shenandoah National Parks, with interim results presented by U.S. Geological Survey collaborators at the PRIMENet annual meeting held in November 1998. This amphibian program was expanded in 1998 with the addition of $500,000 of EPA research funds to be spent in a number of PRIMENet parks in 1999. (PRIMENet, formerly called the Demonstration Intensive Site Project [DISPro], changed its name to reflect that the program has moved beyond the concept of a “demonstration project" and is now a functioning set of index sites.) The National Park Service is looking forward to the success of an FY 2000 budget initiative for the Department of the Interior to sponsor amphibian inventory, monitoring, and research on public lands. We anticipate that departmental scientists and resource managers will launch significant efforts to understand the status and trends in frog, toad, and salamander populations should this $8.1 million–per–year initiative be approved.

		Couch’s spadefoot toad is one of the amphibian species being studied in Big Bend National Park (Texas) as part of the EPA-NPS intensive ecosystem monitoring activities. Three parks conducted similar research during 1998 aimed at developing methods for identifying amphibian population trends. Photo Credit: Big Bend National Park, PRIMENet amphibian crew kathy_tonnessen@nps.gov Ecologist, NPS Air Resources Division; Natural Resource Program Center, Lakewood, Colorado gary_williams@nps.gov Inventory and Monitoring Coordinator, NPS Natural Resource Information Division; Natural Resource Program Center, Fort Collins, Colorado PRIMENet PROGRESS The cooperative agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service was extended three years in 1998 to provide for the continued design and implementation of PRIMENet (formerly DISPro). During the year, the Park Service focused on completing installation of equipment needed for monitoring wet and dry deposition, ozone, and visibility in 14 parks. The EPA and NPS jointly operate the UV monitoring network in those parks. Additionally, eight research projects were started, which include work on nitrogen deposition, UV radiation, climate, and ozone-stressor effects on natural resources. Back to Chapter 1: A Spectrum of Challenges Commercial Fishing Issues In Glacier Bay Resolved Through Legislation by James Tilmant and Chad Soiseth Mining and power generation along the Natchez Trace Parkway by Kerry Moss and Mark VanMouwerik Personal watercraft use to be regulated in the parks by Chip Davis The politics of prescribed fire at devils tower by Chas Cartwright and Kurt Pindel Blackstone River protects nature in a changing cultural landscape by Nancy Brittain Home

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Last Updated: 07/22/99
Direct comments on this website to jeff_selleck@nps.gov
This article is from Natural Resource Year in Review--1998, published by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, in June 1999 (publication D-1346)