"The Frog Guy"
Randy Korb
The Wisconsin Salamander Survey
Amphibians are sensitive to environmental conditions and changes in all life cycle stages and thus indicate the health of natural communities, including wetlands. The Wisconsin Salamander Survey (WSS) develops statewide geographic distribution information and fills in gaps on four terrestrial woodland species, documents new county records for these species, increases awareness of and conservation for salamanders, and is a precursor to a long-term monitoring effort.
Trained citizen monitors select and sample potential wetland breeding habitats by placing live traps for adult salamanders beginning in late March in southern counties and mid- to late April in northern Wisconsin. In the past four years over 100 citizen monitors have documented the presence or absence of tiger salamanders, spotted salamanders, blue-spotted salamanders and central newts in nearly 200 urban and rural wetland sites in 25 counties.
Randy Korb initiated the WSS in 20008 working with WDNR and state herpetological experts. The Citizen-Based Monitoring Partner Program (c-bMPP) of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Audubon Council funded the project in 2008, and the C-bMPP in 2009 and 2011.
Salamander Occurrence in the Urban Wetlands of Madison and Green Bay, WI