Local scouts reprise role as citizen scientists

Girl Scouts from Wrangell's Troop 4156 recently returned from a four-day field exercise upriver, observing amphibians for this year's "Camp'Phibian."

What has become an annual field trip is in its second year and partners the troop with researchers from the Alaska Herpetological Society (AHS) and United States Forest Service. It is part of a broader research project the society has developed called the Stikine Long-Term Amphibian Monitoring Program.

AHS president Josh Ream said the project stemmed from his graduate thesis at University of Alaska Fairbanks. After determining the state lacked long-term monitoring for amphibians, a data collection study was organized that focused on the Stikine River area. Site studies began last year.

The local Girl Scouts were soon on board with the first Camp'Phibian, studying sites upriver at Twin Lakes.

"We have a lot of different goals when we go up there," Ream explained. In addition to collecting data on amphibian populations that can form a baseline for broader, long-term research, information collected by participants can be used to improve species management and conservation efforts.

A water system's frogs, toads, newts and salamanders can be an indicator of the health of the local ecosystem. In addition to being a link in the food chain for predatory birds, fish and other smaller mammals, amphibians are a sort of "canary in the mine" for water purity and pollution levels due to their porous skins and nonmigratory habits.

The Camp'Phibian program is just one component of Ream's research, which combines local knowledge observations and expertise with service-learning and "citizen science" projects. In its second year, the program is still developing and proved more expansive and successful this year than the last.

"Our numbers were great," Ream said. Returning this year on May 22, the girls identified 440 individual specimens, mainly juvenile boreal toads, at three sites. Based on observations of tadpoles during last spring's studies, Ream said the find indicates last year's cohort had a great survival rate, due perhaps to a mild winter and spring this year.

"We did some experiments in the field with the girls," he explained. "This is real science that's ongoing, and they're participating as scientists."

"It's pretty intense, but it's fun, too," said Diane O'Brien, the scout troop's leader. In her view, the program promotes an interest in science for young students, getting them out of classroom for a hands-on learning experience.

"This really fits the bill for that," she said.

Ream said he hopes the program will continue in future, with the long-term retention of information gathered serving as the basis for later research.

"In future years, we're hoping to obtain grants for this program," he said.