Host a FrogWatch USA Chapter!
FrogWatch USA is an AZA citizen science program that encourages community stewardship by training volunteers to listen and report the breeding calls of frogs and toads in their communities. Chapters engage people in both science and conservation in such a way that each volunteer is empowered to do more.
Opening a FrogWatch USA Chapter not only contributes to amphibian conservation, links ex situ programs to in situ conservation, and promotes AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums within their local community, but also supports a national network of FrogWatch USA Chapters and volunteers that together, like other citizen science programs, provide large scale, long term data.
The host institutions for each FrogWatch USA Chapter will identify Chapter Coordinators who will then recruit, train, and support a corps of local FrogWatch USA volunteers. Some incentives for starting a local FrogWatch USA Chapter include:
- Being affiliated with AZA’s first flagship citizen science program
- Being part of a national conservation initiative that includes over ten years of data from every state in the United States
- Training opportunities for Chapter Coordinators
- Receiving free training and promotional materials
- Networking opportunities among Chapters
- Improving the data quality of a national citizen science program
- Providing a credible forum for educating, discussing, and engaging your community in local environmental issues
- Creating community of enthusiastic and consistently trained FrogWatch USA volunteers poised to become community advocates on behalf of your institution’s broader conservation objectives.
Apply to Host a Chapter
Download the FrogWatch USA Chapter Manual to learn more about Chapter responsibilities, the support each Chapter will receive from AZA, the national FrogWatch USA infrastructure, and to obtain a Chapter application. Complete and email the application to: frogwatch@aza.org. It will take 2-4 weeks for AZA to process these applications. Once processed, the AZA FrogWatch USA Coordinator will contact the Chapter Coordinators to answer questions, discuss Chapter Coordinator training, and provide FrogWatch USA materials.