Training

See also: California Red Legged Frog, Habitat Restoration

The Elkhorn Slough Coastal Training Program  announced:

California Red-Legged Frog – 2012 Workshop and Field Session

April 12, 2012

Intended audience included:  biological consultants, land managers, researchers, and regulatory agency personnel.

Workshop registration consisted of classroom lecture and an afternoon field component on April 12^th.  Registration also included attendance at one of two night time field training sessions on the evenings of either April 11 or April 12.  Evening training was from 8:00 pm until midnight. 

Workshop Objectives:

This was a great opportunity to receive training in species identification, field sampling techniques, and the habitat requirements of the California red-legged frog (CRLF). Workshop information will be useful for conservation planning and for educational outreach to agricultural producers and others who are considering projects that may impact CRLF.   The workshop also provided foundational knowledge for monitoring projects with potential impacts to CRLF. *No regulatory or permitting information was included in this workshop.

Workshop Format:

April 12^th Morning Session(8:00am-2:00pm) - Classroom: Overview of biology and management of the California red-legged frog. Meet at the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.

April 12^th Afternoon Session(2:00pm-6:00pm) - Field trip to areas on the North Coast of Santa Cruz County: Habitat requirements and assessment, pond designs, equipment demonstrations, tadpole identification and survey techniques, and frog marking techniques. Personal vehicles required to travel to field sites.

Evening Field Practicum(either April 11 or April 12, 2012, 8:00pm-midnight) - Your registration included attendance at one of the two field training sessions.  In order to reduce teacher:student ratio, we are limiting each field session to 12 participants.  After pre-registering, please email us your preferred date of attendance; include a note if you are not flexible in the date that you are able to attend.  We cannot guarantee your preferred date, but we will do what we can to accommodate your preference.

The night sessions was at the Graniterock Sand Quarry, just north of the City of Santa Cruz on Highway 1.  Instructors  demonstrated decontamination techniques, detecting frog eye shine, and capturing, handling, sexing, and measuring of tadpoles and/or adult frogs.