Froglife

Countdown begins to a new Charter for Trees, Woods and People

November 23, 2016 by Admin

Tree dressing events mark 1 year to go until launch

More than 50* cross-sector organisations call for public support in safeguarding the future of the UK’s trees and woods.

November 2017 will be a historic moment for trees and woods in the UK. 800 years after the 1217 Charter of the Forest** enshrined the right of free men to access the sustainable bounty of woodland and trees in Royal Forests, a new charter will be launched to bring the value of trees back to the forefront of public consciousness and political decision-making.

The Charter for Trees, Woods and People will be a set of key principles created by the public and organisations across the UK that gives clear guidance to individuals, businesses, communities and decision-makers on how to ensure that trees are given the opportunity to bring all the benefits they can to society now and in the future.

The campaign is led by the Woodland Trust, which chairs a steering group of 57 organisations representing forestry, conservation, community woodlands, local governance, faith groups, health, the legal sector and more.

Beccy Speight, Woodland Trust CEO said: “This is truly a historic venture. Never before have so many diverse organisations come together to speak with one voice about the future of trees and woods. That they have done so reflects the severity of the situation facing the UK’s trees and woods today. A perfect storm of natural and man-made threats is being exacerbated by a lack of political will to ensure their future. Society needs to recognise the true value of trees and woods – and that means people of all backgrounds speaking up about how they feel trees enhance their lives.”

One of the key objectives of the campaign is for people to understand the value of trees, and for everyone to do their bit to stand up for their local trees, and make the most of the benefits*** they bring.

The organisations involved are calling for people to add their voice by sharing what they think is important about trees and woods, and are encouraging people to get together with friends, family and colleagues to ‘re-leaf a winter tree’ to mark Tree Dressing Day (4th December), which falls at the end of the Tree Council’s National Tree Week (26th November – 4th December this year). Free packs are available to help people run an event in which people decorate leaves, share their thoughts on the value of trees, and decorate a tree in their community. The leaves will then be sent in to help inform the charter, and to demonstrate public support for trees.

Hundreds of tree dressing day events will take place in communities, schools, universities and companies throughout the Tree Council’s National Tree Week, and especially on the weekend of Tree Dressing Day in early December.

Today, our nation’s woods and trees are facing unprecedented pressures from development, pests and diseases and climate change. They risk being neglected, undervalued and forgotten. Now is the time to create a new charter, a broader charter that recognises the importance of trees in our society, celebrates their enormous contribution to our lives, and acts now so that future generations can benefit from them too.

Simon Lloyd, Royal Forestry Society CEO said: “For woodlands to provide the environmental, economic and social benefits we all desire, they need to be managed. This charter will provide an evidence base of public and professional support to help decision makers – from planners to health professionals – support woodland landscapes new and old and encourage more owners to value and manage their existing woods.”

Jonathan Owen, CEO of the National Association of Local Councils, said: “We’re proud to be one of more than 50 other organisations, from across all sectors of society, calling for a Charter for Trees, Woods and People. We firmly believe that people and trees are stronger together, but our nation’s woods and trees are facing unprecedented pressures from development, disease and climate change and are at risk of being neglected, undervalued and forgotten. That is why we are calling for a Charter for Trees, Woods and People to be developed that reflects how trees have shaped the UK’s society, landscape and lives. It’s time to stick up for trees and woods.”

To claim a free Tree Dressing Pack people can email treecharter@woodlandtrust.org.uk with your address and details of how you will use the pack. Each pack comes with 100 leaves to decorate, so state how many you need.

*The organisations involved in the call for a Charter include: Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association UK (AMYA), Ancient Tree Forum, Arboricultural Association (AA), Bat Conservation Trust, Black Environment Network (BEN), Borders Forest Trust, Butterfly Conservation, Campaign for National Parks (CNP), Campaign Strategy, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), Caring for God’s Acre, City of Trees Manchester, Climate Coalition, Coigach-Assynt Living Landscape Partnership, Common Ground, Community Woodlands Association, Confor, Country Land and Business Association (CLA), Froglife, Forest Schools Association (FSA), FSC UK, Going Wild, GreenBlue Urban, Grown in Britain, Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF) , John Muir Trust, Legal Sustainability Alliance (LSA), Llais y Goedwig, Mersey Forest, National Association of Local Councils (NALC), National Trust, National Union of Students, Natural Resources Wales, New Forest National Park Authority, Northern Ireland Environment Link, Plantlife, Royal Forestry Society (RFS), Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), RSPB, Small Woods Association, Soil Association, Small Woodland Owners’ Group (SWOG), Sylva Foundation, Trees and Design Action Group (TDAG), The Centre For Sustainable Healthcare, The Conservation Foundation, The Land Trust, The National Forest, The Sherwood Forest Trust, The Tree Council, The Wildlife Trusts, The Windsor Estate, Trees for Cities, Wild Network, Wildlife & Countryside Link, Woodlands.co.uk, Woodland Heritage, WWF-UK.

Goodbye Mr Toad? Scientists chart a worrying drop in numbers of our most lovable amphibian.

October 6, 2016 by Admin

A new study led by Froglife, together with experts from Switzerland has shown how the efforts of ordinary members of the public are identifying big declines in our native amphibians.

©Jules Howard

Every year thousands of volunteers in the UK, working as part of Froglife’s ‘Toads on Roads’ patrols, help save amphibians as they migrate to their breeding ponds across busy roads. Toads are particularly vulnerable and over 800,000 are carried to safety by volunteers each year in the UK and Switzerland.

Froglife’s conservation scientists teamed up with Swiss counterparts to analyse millions of records of common toads (scientific name Bufo bufo) collected by these patrols over more than three decades from the two countries. Unfortunately, despite the effort of the volunteers, the researchers show that our toads have undergone huge declines.

On average common toads have declined by 68% over the last 30 years in the UK. In some areas, such as the south east of England, declines have been even more pronounced.

The team’s results, published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161943), show that toads have declined rapidly and continuously since the 1980s in both countries. It is likely that hundreds of thousands of toads have disappeared from the countryside in the past 30 years.

In the UK, south east England suffered the worst declines while in the west (including Wales, south west and west England) populations also declined but have remained stable for the past decade. The North, including northern counties and Scotland, has also seen significant toad declines in the past 20 years.

It is not clear what has caused numbers of toads to drop so dramatically but likely causes are a combination of changes to farming practices, loss of ponds, an increase in urbanisation and more deaths on roads as traffic values have increased. Climate change could also be a factor as research has shown that milder winters are detrimental for hibernating toads.

Dr. Silviu Petrovan, Conservation Coordinator at Froglife and one of the authors of the study said:

“Toad declines at this scale over such large areas are really worrying. Toads are extremely adaptable and can live in many places ranging from farmland and woodland to suburban gardens. They are also important pest controllers eating slugs, snails and insects and are food themselves for many of our most likeable mammals such as otters and polecats. Without the efforts of the thousands of volunteers that go out and move amphibians across busy roads we would have no idea that these declines had occurred and the situation could be much worse. One thing that is clear is that we need to do more to look after our environment in order to protect the species that depend on it.”

Paul Edgar, The Senior Amphibian and Reptile Specialist from Natural England, the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England and who have funded Froglife on road mitigation research, said:

“This paper highlights a number of important issues for our native amphibians and conservation more generally in the UK. The common toad is sadly on a downward trend. This is partly because of habitat fragmentation, and so understanding and mitigating the impacts of this issue is vital. We need to continue to build good quality habitat links across the wider landscape if we are to offer opportunities for this species to recover. We’re working hard to do this through measures such as Countryside Stewardship in the rural setting, and ensuring good quality Green Infrastructure is included in new developments. This paper reinforces the vital positive role that the public play in both protecting and recording data about our wildlife. We need to build on this engagement to further help us collaboratively reverse these declines as a matter of urgency.”

Thanks to our wonderful volunteers!

June 20, 2016 by Admin

This month we’d like to highlight the time, passion and creativity that our volunteers bring to our projects.

All over the UK, the Froglife teams create & restore habitats and hold events to help educate the public on the importance of conserving amphibians and reptiles and saving the habitats they depend on. At all of these events, across the countryside and cities we have a strong team of volunteers who are always there to help spread the conservation message and get mucky to help our little frogs, toads, newts, snakes and lizards! vol KW2016

These volunteers not only give us their time, they also share their talents with us by regularly taking photos and creating fantastic videos after we’ve completed projects at sites.

So here’s a few bits that they’ve shared with us:

This amazing underwater video of tadpoles in Olive Branch Community Gardens, was shared to Rebecca Neal, Conservation Youth Worker, for Peterborough Green Pathways by one of her volunteers. Froglife put the ponds in 5 or 6 years ago through the Wildlife Ambassadors project, and this video clearly shows us that the frogs like the ponds we made!

This selection of videos come from Katie Garrett, one of the London Dragon Finder volunteers. Katie often comes along to our events and work days, gets muddy and still manages to take amazing photos and videos! Check her out on twitter, @katieggarrett, as she often posts more images and short videos of the amphibians and reptiles she sees when she’s out and about. When she’s not volunteering with us, she also volunteers with Honduras Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Centre, making films for their conservation efforts. She’s a Herp Hero!

So again, a MASSIVE thanks to all our volunteers from everyone here at Froglife!

This is how SMILEY you make us! — You make us all **SMILE!**

Froglife Announce New Patron

May 5, 2016 by Admin

Jules Howard, Froglife's new Patron — Jules Howard, Froglife’s new Patron

UK amphibian and reptile conservation charity, Froglife, are delighted to announce that Jules Howard will be joining TV presenter Mike Dilger as their new Patron.

Jules is a zoologist, international non-fiction author and regular writer for The Guardian and BBC Wildlife Magazine. A former Froglifer, Jules has a genuine soft spot for frogs, toads and snakes and has fond memories of his years on Froglife’s enquiry line, particularly during spring-time.

“For me, amphibians and reptiles are mysterious, weird and not altogether… normal. This is why I love them. And they’re also so accessible. Anyone, regardless of their demographic in life, can be engaged by frogs. Through them, anyone can be sparked off into a lasting interest in science and nature. This was certainly the case for me.”

As well as writing and presenting, Jules is also a UK Science Ambassador. In the last five years, Jules has worked with 100,000 pupils, encouraging careers in science including palaeontology, zoology and wildlife conservation. Jules also presents at (and hosts for) a number of science festivals, including Edinburgh International Science Festival, Cheltenham Science Festival, TEDx and IDEAcity Toronto.

“Froglife’s strength is in its unique perspective. Wildlife conservation is mostly about saving wild places. But we, I guess, need saving a bit too. Our lives can be made better through nature. Froglife gets that. Being a Patron, having worked at Froglife, is a real honour and a privilege. I’m delighted to be involved.”

Froglife takes a holistic approach to nature conservation which enables them to take individuals on a wildlife journey, whilst also delivering amazing results for amphibian and reptile species. In the last two years Froglife has created or restored 270 wildlife sites, with help from 1,891 volunteers and benefitting 12,543 people.

Froglife’s CEO Kathy Wormald said “We’re absolutely delighted to welcome Jules as our new Patron alongside Mike Dilger. As a former employee Jules knows the organisation from the inside out and has shown a long-term commitment to our organisation and the species we work to protect. We are delighted to honour him in this way and know that he will act as a fantastic ambassador for Froglife”.

Croaking Science: The use of eDNA to detect elusive amphibians

February 24, 2016 by Admin

The use of eDNA as a novel method for the detection of elusive amphibians in tropical climates

By Eleanor Gourevitch, J. Roger Downie, Mark S. Greener, Sarah Brozio, Tom Burns and Paul A. Hoskisson

Affiliated with the University of Glasgow Trinidad Expedition 2015 and the University of Strathclyde

For those species which are elusive and hard to find there is an urgent need to develop new detection methods. Traditional methods can often be invasive and destructive, reducing the overall benefits that could be gained from surveying. The golden tree frog (Phytotriades auratus), for instance, lives its entire life cycle within the bromeliad (Glomeropitcairnia erectiflora) where surveying has previously consisted of total destruction of the plant to determine the frog’s presence or absence. Many amphibians could be considered elusive due to their sit-and-wait method of foraging, low metabolism and nocturnal behaviour (Duellman & Trueb 1994; Willson et al. 2011), but the golden tree frog is particularly elusive because of its restricted habitat and apparent lack of a call. In order to detect such animals, new rapid techniques must be developed, due to the threats facing many amphibians in response to climate change and emerging pathogens.

The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) as an indicator of presence is one such recent detection method. This method was first used to detect macroinvertebrates in ancient sediments (Willerslev et al. 2003). This led to further development of the method for the detection of many groups of freshwater organisms. Sampling involves collection of a small amount of water containing mucus, skin cells or faeces etc. of the organism in question. The extraction of total DNA from the sample is followed by PCR analysis. The specificity of the PCR reaction can then be used to confirm the presence or absence of the target species. This allows for non-invasive, non-destructive sampling which can be undertaken when the organism is not directly observed. However, there may be some limitations to this technique, such as the viability of this method when used within the tropics due to increased rates of DNA degradation and the higher level of biodiversity (Yoccoz et al. 2012).

In order to assess the application of this technique for surveying the critically endangered golden tree frog in the Northern Range of Trinidad and also the viability of this technique in tropical conditions, we sampled the phytotelma of the giant bromeliad, Glomeropitcairnia erectiflora – the only known habitat of this species. This bromeliad only grows above 600 m, which consequently means that this species of frog has only been found so far on the peaks of El Tucuche and El Cerro del Aripo in Trinidad and, recently a new population discovered on the Península de Paria, Venezuela (Rivas & De Freitas 2015).

Figure 2: Collection of the water samples from bromeliads (Glomeropitcairnia erectiflora) at the summit of El Tucuche, Trinidad by Thomas Burns and Hannah Davidson

In the summer of 2015, we sampled almost 200 bromeliads from the peak of El Tucuche over a 10 week period from June – August. The samples were fixed in ethanol in Trinidad and analysed back in the laboratory in Glasgow. DNA extraction and PCR was carried out on the samples, using primers designed to amplify golden tree frog DNA. We used a positive control based on the cytB for the golden tree frog sequence deposited in Genbank. This was made synthetically in a plasmid that replicates in the bacterium Escherichia coli, which allowed us to produce large amounts of high quality, easily quantified positive control PCR template. This allowed us to avoid collection of any new golden tree frog tissue samples. It was shown that P. auratus was detectable within many of the bromeliads sampled and that the use of eDNA is an effective method of detection, even in tropical conditions. These data will allow us to carry out a more detailed sampling regimen during our field season in 2016, which will result in population estimates of the golden tree frog.

We hope that this technique will be applied in future to surveying further elusive amphibian species. Accurate population estimates and the ability to rapidly determine population range are fundamental to the development of specific legislation and conservation efforts concerning the protection of critically endangered species.

Acknowledgements
PAH and EG would like to thank the Amphibian Survival Alliance (ASA) and Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG) for Seed Grant Funding to support this project (Amphibians.org). Thanks to Froglife for their help in our 2015 Crowdfunding campaign “Fighting for a golden future: Safeguarding the Golden Tree Frog”.

References
Duellman, W.E. & Trueb, L., 1994. Biology of Amphibians, JHU Press.
Rivas, G. & Freitas, M. De, 2015. Discovery of the Critically Endangered Golden Tree Frog, Phytotriades auratus (Boulenger, 1917), in Eastern Venezuela, with Comments on its Distribution, Conservation, and Biogeography. Herpetological Review, 46(2), pp.153–157.
Willerslev, E. et al., 2003. Diverse plant and animal genetic records from Holocene and Pleistocene sediments. Science (New York, N.Y.), 300(5620), pp.791–5.
Willson, J.D., Winne, C.T. & Todd, B.D., 2011. Ecological and methodological factors affecting detectability and population estimation in elusive species. Journal of Wildlife Management, 75(1), pp.36–45.
Yoccoz, N.G. et al., 2012. DNA from soil mirrors plant taxonomic and growth form diversity. Molecular Ecology, 21(15), pp.3647–3655.

University collaboration helps charity demonstrate its success

August 26, 2015 by Admin

University of Hull academics from the Faculty of Education and The Faculty of Science and Engineering have come together to assist national conservation charity Froglife to demonstrate the difference its fieldwork makes.

DSC_0411 library Larkin toad and researchers
Froglife has a long and successful track record of helping children and young people gain confidence and develop a range of social skills through learning about conservation, nature and the environment. The children, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds, are often referred to the charity from schools and social services who recognise the impact that learning and playing in the outdoors can offer them. However, it is not always easy to communicate this success.

Ally Dunhill, Associate Dean Learning and Teaching in the Faculty of Education said: “We are taking an inter-disciplinary approach to helping Froglife find a robust way of being able to demonstrate the positive impact their work is having on the learning and development of children and young people. We are working on new ways to collect and evaluate data as well as tracking the impact working with Froglife has on the children’s attitudes towards conservation and environmental issues over time.

“I have spent many years researching the benefits to children of learning in the outdoors and promoting Forest Schools and other outdoor learning opportunities and I’m delighted to work with Froglife so that more children can gain from what they offer.”

Prof Graham Scott, Associate Dean Learning and Teaching in the Faculty of Science and Engineering added: “Field-based learning has many advantages for the development of a range of skills. At the University of Hull we place great emphasis on the value of field work for our own students and our trainee teachers. As a biologist and active researcher, it is an area I am particularly keen to explore further.

“The outcome of the project will benefit all the partners. Froglife will be in a better place to be able to demonstrate to future funders and other parties, the value of their work and as academic researchers, we are gaining valuable insight into field-based learning.”

Katy Wormald, CEO of Froglife said: “Policy makers are starting to understand the importance to people’s health and mental wellbeing of being outdoors and working with nature. As a wildlife conservation charity we want to ensure that we create more high quality green spaces for people to enjoy. To do that it is important to be able to have tangible evidence of the value that this can bring. By working with the University of Hull we will be in a much stronger position to provide the evidence that funders, partners and other third parties are looking for.”

Froglife

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