Amphibians help Darrington-area tribe monitor nature’s health

Published 11:20 pm Thursday, April 22, 2010

DARRINGTON — Monitoring the health of frogs and salamanders in a wetland owned by the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe is helping the tribe’s natural resource staff study possible pollution problems and effects of climate change.

Each spring, amphibians lay hundreds of egg clusters in a 5-acre swamp near the Sauk River north of Darrington. The tribe has been monitoring egg clusters in the wetland between February and May for the past four years, said Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission spokeswoman Kari Neumeyer.

Frogs and salamanders are thin-skinned and sensitive to disturbances in their habitat, said Scott Morris, the tribe’s watershed manager. This sensitivity makes the amphibians good indicators of environmental health.

The tribe’s survey could reveal a pattern of mutations that indicate increased pollution, Morris said.

Each week, Morris and natural resources technicians Kevin Lenon, Eugene Edwards and Michael Wolten mark the locations of new egg masses and check the status of the older ones, noting larvae that have grown tails and those that have floated to the surface or hatched.

Last year, the team found and flagged 1,500 egg clusters.

The most common species in the wetland are Pacific tree frogs, red-legged frogs and northwestern salamanders, along with a few long-toed salamanders and western toads, Neumeyer said.

The Sauk-Suiattle Reservation, in the foothills of the Cascade Range, is far from urban populations where groundwater quality has been degraded, Neumeyer said.

The amphibian survey is one way to make sure the wetland remains uncontaminated, Morris said.

So far, the frogs aren’t singing a song that indicates anything else, and that’s a nice sound, he said.

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.