The NCC, Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs du Québec and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Quebec have put together a program to train volunteers as chorus frog ambassadors.

Their goal will be to go out to the frogs’ habitats and conduct inventory on them. The ambassadors will record the frogs’ mating calls based on intensity — from no calls to an indistinguishable amount — and report their findings back via an app or a paper form.

“They are mostly found on farm lands, large hay fields; you can find populations from the Isle aux Allumettes all the way to Quyon and Luskville. In Luskville, there is a very healthy population located on the chemin Pilon, to mention one specifically,” Francisco Diaz, coordinator of the project, said in an email. “[Volunteers] can choose the site to be inventoried based on their location, and they can choose how many sites they wish to survey. The survey is less than 15 minutes per site, so it is not time-consuming.”

There will be virtual training meeting on April 13 for French speakers and April 14 for English speakers, both at 6 p.m. The meetings will serve as a basic info sessions about chorus frogs and will teach volunteers to recognize the males’ distinctive mating song. The training is open to all ages.

There is also a stewardship guides for citizens with frogs on their land on how to best conserve the animal and its habitat.

Should someone miss the meetings and still want to participate, they can email Diaz at francisco.diaz@natureconservancy.ca who will provide them with all the necessary information, and anything else relating to the chorus frog. More information can be found at https://tinyurl.com/5cmjf539.

“Protecting the chorus frog means protecting its habitat. Getting to know the species, and how it interacts with the environment and how dependent it is on precise ecosystems is really eye opening,” Diaz wrote. “ By participating in this conservation project, people will help preserve these ecosystems in the long run, and this will allow us to maintain aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in urban landscapes.

“Also, not to be forgotten, chorus frogs help diminishing the population of biting insects, something everyone can relate to.”

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