The Acadiana Park Nature Station staff is currently participating in the Louisiana Amphibian Monitoring Program (lamp) in association with Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. We have five fixed amphibian monitoring sites on the Nature Station trail system. We monitor these sites at least three times a year in the months of December, March and May. In the case of no rain in the previous three months, we use the months of january, April and June as make-up months. At night, after or during a rain, we walk to each site, check the air temperature and listen for calling frogs for an uninterrupted three minutes. Once we have collected data for all five sites we send it in to the area LAMP coordinator.

LAMP is part of a national program to monitor amphibian populations. You can go to the official LAMP web site at www.wlf.state.la.us/apps/netgear/index.asp?cn=lawlf&pid=722 to learn more about the program, to become a volunteer, or to hear local frog calls. Below is an excerpt from the LAMP web site:

"First established in 1996, LAMP is mostly a volunteer effort coordinated in part by LDWF to begin accumulating data on Louisiana's amphibians (frogs, toads, and salamanders). The first part of this effort has been to establish calling frog surveys.

There is widespread concern that populations of many species of amphibians are declining throughout the world. Human influences, such as wetland reduction, pollution from point sources, and deforestation seem to be connected with some of the reductions in amphibian populations. However, concern increased in the late 1980's when biologists began reporting declined that apparently had little to do with direct local human activity. It became evident that factors on a broader scale may be implicated, such as disease, acid rain, pollution from stormwater runoff, and increase in UVb radiation."

Click here to view the Louisiana Amphibian Monitoring Program data sheet for fixed sites.
Click here to view the Acadiana Park Nature Station December 1998 calling-amphibian data.
Click here to view the Acadiana Park Nature Station March 1999 calling-amphibian data.
Click here to view the Acadiana Park Nature Station May 1999 calling-amphibian data.