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Olivia Allen-Price<\/strong>: If you grew up here in the Bay Area \u2026 or if you\u2019ve lived here a long time \u2026 I bet this sound is familiar to you:<\/p>\n Sounds of Pacific tree frogs chorusing<\/em><\/p>\n Olivia Allen-Price<\/strong>: Tree frogs. A quintessential soundtrack to the Bay Area. These aren\u2019t your stereotypical big, bloated bullfrogs. They\u2019re little green frogs just a couple inches long, with bulging eyes and giant toe pads that allow them to climb trees.<\/p>\n They\u2019re especially noisy during the springtime, which is their mating season.<\/p>\n Dave Ellis: <\/strong>I used to wonder how people that lived next to them could sleep in the springtime because the frogs were so loud. It was really cool.<\/p>\n Olivia Allen-Price<\/strong>: Dave Ellis grew up in the South Bay city of Saratoga.<\/p>\n Dave Ellis: <\/strong>We live about a quarter mile from the creek, and you could hear the tree frogs that far away.<\/p>\n Olivia Allen-Price<\/strong>: When he was a kid, he used to go to the creek, which ran through a community college campus, to try to see the frogs for himself.<\/p>\n Dave Ellis:<\/strong> We used to go to West Valley College and we used to catch them in the creek there um because they had like a little bridge you could climb down it was really easy to get into the creek um and you could hear lots of them there too.<\/p>\n Olivia Allen-Price<\/strong>: Dave still lives in Saratoga, not too far from that creek. But now, come springtime, it\u2019s silent.<\/p>\n Dave Ellis:<\/strong> It\u2019s so weird, it used to be so loud this time of year, and it\u2019s just dead silent. All of a sudden, the silence was just deafening.<\/p>\n Olivia Allen-Price<\/strong>: He says he has hardly heard a single frog sound for years.<\/p>\n Dave Ellis:<\/strong> So I was wondering what happened. I mean, it could be pesticides. It could be climate change. It could mean, who knows, but it\u2019s such a dramatic change because for years and years and probably before we moved here when I was a kid, even there was tree frogs and now there\u2019s like literally none. There\u2019s not a single one.<\/p>\n Olivia Allen-Price<\/strong>: Dave\u2019s question won a public voting round at BayCurious.org. Which reminds me, head over to Bay Curious dot org to cast your vote in this month\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n Bay Curious theme music<\/em><\/p>\n Olivia Allen-Price<\/strong>: I\u2019m Olivia Allen-Price, and today on Bay Curious, we look into the mystery of the disappearing tree frogs. We\u2019ll visit that creek on the West Valley College campus \u2026 and enlist the help of some students \u2026 all to find out what happened to the tree frogs. Stay with us.<\/p>\n Sponsor message<\/em><\/p>\n Olivia Allen-Price<\/strong>: This week, we\u2019re looking into the odd lack of tree frog choruses that one Bay Curious listener has noticed. We sent Bay Curious reporter Dana Cronin on a hunt to find out what\u2019s going on with the tree frogs.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin:<\/strong> I can totally relate to Dave\u2019s nostalgia for the sound of frogs in the springtime. I, too, grew up across the street from some frogs. I\u2019m not sure how many of them there were, but boy, were they loud.<\/p>\n I figured the best way to find out what happened to Dave\u2019s frogs was to go straight to the source.<\/p>\n So I headed to the West Valley College campus \u2014 the one in the neighborhood where Dave grew up, with the creek running through it.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin (in scene):<\/strong> So this is the creek?<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo: <\/strong>This is the Creek.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>I met up with West Valley College biology professor Leticia Gallardo \u2026 who has agreed to go on this frog hunt with me.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo: <\/strong>I thought we\u2019d walk up a little bit farther up \u2026 We have a little, bit of a wetland. I\u2019m hoping we might have some luck looking for some frogs up there.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin (in scene): <\/strong>That sounds great!<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>So, we set off. It\u2019s early fall, which isn\u2019t the best time of year to be looking for them since it\u2019s so dry.<\/p>\n But nonetheless, Professor Gallardo tells me we\u2019re looking for the Pacific tree frog.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo:<\/strong> Their characteristic look is this black stripe over their eye. So if you see a little frog, maybe about two inches or so, with a black almost mask. Over their face, you\u2019re probably looking at a tree frog.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>Pacific tree frogs like living in cool, wet environments. In creekbeds \u2026 but even underneath a drip from a garden hose, or in a fountain.<\/p>\n And we\u2019re keeping our ears \u2014 as well as our eyes \u2014 peeled. Because even though these frogs are small, their sound is mighty.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo:<\/strong> In fact, it\u2019s the frog that Hollywood records right in the hills. And so they call it sometimes the Hollywood frog because when you hear frogs in the background of a movie or a TV show, is oftentimes that Pacific tree frog. That\u2019s the one chorusing.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>We walk along the creek, which winds through campus. We pass by classrooms, walk through a mini golf course, all the while looking for frog habitat.<\/p>\n Professor Gallardo spots a utility box, makes a beeline for it, and turns it over.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo:<\/strong> They sometimes hang out in the nice little cozy, moist utility box. They like those.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>But not today. So, we keep walking.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo:<\/strong> Do you hear that?<\/p>\n Dana Cronin (in scene):<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>We think we hear one. So we start to follow the sound back down to the creek.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo:<\/strong> I was trying to find a spot that doesn\u2019t have as much poison oak.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>But someone \u2014 ahem, me \u2014 wasn\u2019t willing to brave the poison oak. So we keep walking.<\/p>\n Professor Gallardo has one more spot in mind.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo: <\/strong>The next spot where there\u2019s water, we might get lucky.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin (in scene):<\/strong> Sure, let\u2019s do it.<\/p>\n Sounds of running water<\/em><\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>We start walking back downstream, and get to a part of the creek where there\u2019s a slow, steady drip \u2013 IDEAL frog habitat.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo: <\/strong>I thought I heard one. Were you recording?<\/p>\n Dana Cronin (in scene):<\/strong> I was, I didn\u2019t hear.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo:<\/strong> You didn\u2019t hear it?<\/p>\n Dana Cronin (in scene):<\/strong> No. Now we\u2019re imagining frogs. (laughs)<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>We wait in silence, hoping for just one croak.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin (in scene): <\/strong>Well dang, it might be a strikeout.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo: <\/strong>No frogs.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>I\u2019m bummed. But Professor Gallardo is more than bummed; she seems disturbed.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo:<\/strong> It just seems that there should be something in here.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>After all, this little creek is perfect habitat for tree frogs.<\/p>\n So, where are they all?<\/p>\n Music starts<\/em><\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>Dave\u2019s right. What was once a booming tree frog population at West Valley College seems to have been nearly erased.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s difficult to pinpoint exactly what happened to this particular population.<\/p>\n But still, I tried by asking Emily Taylor, a biology professor at Cal Poly, who specializes in amphibians and reptiles.<\/p>\n Emily Taylor: <\/strong>So my guess would be that they could be declining in some areas due to a combination of increased pesticide use, possibly. Which could be directly harming them, or it could be killing the insects that they rely on for food.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>Indeed, there was a noticeable lack of bugs along the creekbed at West Valley College.<\/p>\n And sure enough, when I asked, a West Valley spokesperson said the college quote \u201cuses limited pesticides in specific locations on campus when necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n Professor Taylor said the decline could also be due to habitat changes in the creek bed where these frogs used to live. Like, maybe the college has paved over certain parts of it or has disturbed it in some other way.<\/p>\n Emily Taylor:<\/strong> If you bulldoze or cover in concrete a creek bed to manage the watersheds, then a lot of times you\u2019ll wipe out the water-loving species, including amphibians.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>Frogs in general are especially vulnerable to changes in their environment because they have permeable skin, which makes them susceptible to certain types of toxins and also disease. Some scientists even refer to them as canaries in the coal mine.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s why both locally here in California and globally, amphibians are on the decline.<\/p>\n Because think about how much things have changed here for frogs over time.<\/p>\n Emily Taylor:<\/strong> We used to, up until literally just a couple hundred years ago, like pre-Gold Rush era, have just this vast untouched landscape full of pristine wetlands.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>We\u2019ve destroyed a lot of that habitat over time to make room for interstate freeways, housing developments and farms.<\/p>\n And in that time, our climate has also changed a lot, leading to more drought, which \u2014 as we\u2019ve learned \u2014 is not good for frogs.<\/p>\n New diseases have cropped up over time as well, including one caused by the chytrid fungus, which affects frogs\u2019 skin and prevents them from regulating their water intake.<\/p>\n The chytrid fungus is a major factor in amphibian declines around the world and here in California, too.<\/p>\n Emily Taylor:<\/strong> If you look at California frogs in general, more than half of them are threatened or endangered. It\u2019s really dire.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>But interestingly, Pacific tree frogs \u2014 the ones that Dave asked about \u2014 are not threatened or endangered.<\/p>\n In fact, their population is thriving.<\/p>\n Emily Taylor:<\/strong> They are known for being very resilient. So, whereas other species of frogs have become locally extinct in certain areas, Pacific chorus frogs are doing very well still.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>Professor Taylor says their propensity for living in urban areas \u2026 including under garden hose drips, in backyard water features, and small creeks has made them resilient to all the changes the Bay Area has seen over time.<\/p>\n So the fact that Dave\u2019s not hearing his neighborhood frogs anymore means there\u2019s something going on more locally.<\/p>\n Emily Taylor: <\/strong>I think that\u2019s actually something that\u2019s really concerning, because this is probably one of the most resilient amphibian species that we have. And so if it is being impacted, then that does imply that there\u2019s probably something amiss in that particular neighborhood.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>The good news is that the solution is also pretty hyperlocal. Dave doesn\u2019t need to solve climate change or cure any diseases to bring his neighborhood frogs back.<\/p>\n The solution is actually quite simple.<\/p>\n Emily Taylor:<\/strong> The best thing people can do, really, is to plant native plants in your yard, have a water feature, and really avoid pesticide use.<\/p>\n Sounds of flowing water<\/em><\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>Which is exactly what Leticia Gallardo has done at West Valley College.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo:<\/strong> This little plant right in here, this big-leafed, low-growing plant, is called yerba mansa.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>Professor Gallardo and her students have been working on installing native gardens for the past few years. They want to create habitat for all kinds of native critters.<\/p>\n And they\u2019re starting to see results! Just this year, a monarch butterfly caterpillar affixed its chrysalis to a big metal pole right outside their classroom. It\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve seen a monarch on campus, and they\u2019re very protective of it.<\/p>\n Student Melanie Zarza reads me a sign that students pinned up next to the chrysalis.<\/p>\n Melanie Zarza:<\/strong> \u201cThis is a monarch butterfly chrysalis. He is cooking. Don\u2019t bug him If you hurt this little creature the entire biology department will have beef with you and you and will release the curse of Ra.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>As Melanie and I are admiring the chrysalis, Professor Gallardo is examining the native milkweed they have planted in the garden nearby.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo: <\/strong>There\u2019s more caterpillars!<\/p>\n Melanie Zarza: <\/strong>Really?!<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>There are more of them, she says.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo: <\/strong>There\u2019s an itty bitty tiny one right here. \u2026<\/p>\n Melanie Zarza: <\/strong>There\u2019s one right there, under you.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo: <\/strong>You see another one?<\/p>\n Melanie Zarza:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo: <\/strong>Oh my God, oh my God! There\u2019s more!<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>We fan out and start peeking under leaves and closely examining stalks \u2014 and we keep seeing more and more caterpillars, with vibrant yellow, black and white stripes lining their chunky bodies.<\/p>\n Melanie Zarza: <\/strong>So, how many do we have now?<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo: <\/strong>I think we should count them. Oh, look, there\u2019s another one. Oh my god, that\u2019s so exciting.<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo: <\/strong>It\u2019s amazing when you like, spend so much time planting and like waiting for the critters to come and then they come. It makes it all worth it.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin (in scene): <\/strong>Do you think this could be? I mean, not that it has to be all about the frogs, but do you think that this could be an indication that the frog species here on campus could start to really come back?<\/p>\n Leticia Gallardo: <\/strong>Well, I think if you restore the habitat, you make a home for them, you make space for them. Yeah. If we can have less contaminants going into that creek, it\u2019s totally hospitable. They are really adaptable, generalized little critters, And so I think they totally could.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin (in scene): <\/strong>Fingers crossed.<\/p>\n Dana Cronin: <\/strong>Sure enough, a couple months after my visit to West Valley College, I got an email from Professor Gallardo.<\/p>\n She said that winter rains brought out some frogs and that they\u2019re now consistently hearing a few frogs in the gardens and the creek.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a huge chorus yet, she said, not like the one that Dave remembers. But it\u2019s a step in that direction.<\/p>\n Olivia Allen-Price<\/strong>: That was KQED\u2019s Dana Cronin. Thanks to Dave Ellis for asking this week\u2019s question, which won a public voting round on Bay Curious dot org. There\u2019s still time left to vote in February\u2019s contest, so head on over and cast your vote.<\/p>\n Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.<\/p>\n Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price.<\/p>\n With extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.<\/p>\n Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.<\/p>\n I\u2019m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n