Mountain Chorus Frog, Pseudacris brachyphona

Josh's Frogs awarded a 2025 Amphibian Conservation Grant to PA Woods and Forests for their project Mountain Chorus Frog Conservation & Acoustic Monitoring Initiative. To learn more about this project we did a virtual interview with PA Woods and Forests Executive Director AAron Capouellez.

How specifically do you plan to use the grant money? Grant funds will be used to purchase autonomous acoustic monitoring units and supporting field equipment to expand our existing amphibian monitoring network to include the Mountain Chorus Frog (Pseudacris brachyphona). Priority deployment will focus on a recently discovered population in Fayette County, which will serve as a model site for identifying habitat characteristics and calling patterns. If funding allows, trail cameras will be paired with select acoustic monitors to document habitat conditions, hydrology, and potential stressors. Additional funds will support SD cards, batteries, and mounting hardware necessary for long-term field deployment.

Frog calls are recorded using audio devices like this one

What does winning this grant allow you to do that you might not have otherwise? Winning this grant allows us to immediately scale our monitoring capacity at a critical moment for a declining species. Without this support, our ability to include the Mountain Chorus Frog in this year’s monitoring season would be limited by equipment availability. The grant enables earlier deployment during the narrow breeding window, expansion into a new county, and deeper collaboration with a new conservation partner—opportunities that would likely be delayed or missed entirely without dedicated funding.

When do you expect to see results from this? What are you hoping they look like? Initial results are expected within the first breeding season following deployment. We want to document consistent calling activity at the Fayette County model population, establish a more precise calling timeline for the species in Pennsylvania, and potentially detect previously undocumented populations. Success would include confirmed presence/absence data, improved understanding of habitat features supporting viable populations, and high-quality audio records that can be shared with conservation partners.

How will this project impact amphibian conservation? This project directly supports amphibian conservation by providing non-invasive, long-term monitoring data for a Species of Greatest Conservation Need in Pennsylvania. The information gathered will help guide habitat protection, inform future surveys, and support evidence-based conservation decisions. By reducing reliance on brief, human-limited surveys, this approach improves detection accuracy and minimizes disturbance to sensitive breeding sites.

What are the larger implications of your work? Beyond the Mountain Chorus Frog, this project demonstrates how bioacoustic monitoring can be used to study cryptic and declining amphibians across fragmented landscapes efficiently. The model developed in Fayette County can be replicated for other at-risk species, strengthening regional monitoring efforts and providing a scalable framework for conservation organizations and citizen scientists.

What message or information would you like to share with the reptile and amphibian pet community? The reptilian and amphibian communities play a vital role in conservation. Many species cherished in captivity are declining in the wild, often quietly and without notice. Supporting field-based conservation efforts—through responsible husbandry, habitat protection, and funding research—helps ensure these species persist beyond enclosures. Conservatio begins with awareness, and stewardship extends beyond captivity.

How would someone donate to your organization? Donations can be made directly through our organization’s official PayPal, and support ongoing field research, equipment acquisition, and conservation education.

Where could someone learn more about your project? Additional information, project updates, and findings can be found through our website and Facebook Page, where we share field updates, acoustic discoveries, and conservation education content. We also collaborate with local conservation partners to share findings with land managers and the public.

Anything else you want to share? The Mountain Chorus Frog is a reminder that conservation success often depends on noticing what is easy to overlook. This project exists because a population was discovered, listened to, and taken seriously. With the support of Josh’s Frogs, we can ensure that these voices are not lost—and that future conservation decisions are guided by sound, data-driven evidence.