Earlier this Spring our daughter and I were wandering through the Lazo Marsh when we heard a sound that made us jump for joy.

Right along Lazo Road, the song of the frogs could not be denied – and they were everywhere. We were so excited to check out these princes incognito and spent an hour or so just watching their every move.

Not so long after, I learned that discovering frogs in local marshes may be a thrill for us novice naturalists. But, they can mean big, big trouble for West Coast ecosystems.

That is not to say that every frog you find is bad. But, there is a movement afoot to track and remove one frog from habitats in the region – the non-native, highly predatory and invasive Bullfrog.

Bullfrogs are spreading rapidly on Vancouver Island, introduced here in the early 20th century by people wanting to farm them for their legs and spreading for reasons including people wanting frogs as pets, moving them from their habitat and introducing them into new parts of the region. They are very distinctive from native frogs such as the Western Toad, Red-legged Frog and the Pacific Treefrog (see below) in that they are considerably bigger with defined ears and different colouring according to the BC Ministry of Environment.

They are displacing native frog populations – a major factor in the rapid decline of local frogs.

While the science of frogs is definitely the territory of herpetologists (a team from UVic including scientist Mike Dodd is currently studying the Bullfrog invasion), there are many, many things that can be fun, ecological and educational which we as normal everyday nature lovers can do to help scientists and local ecosystems out.

The Ministry of Environment has established the Frogwatch Program to teach folks about Bullfrogs and another non-native Green Frog that is also a growing population on the island.

If frog watching sounds like something you’d love to jump into with your family, or a larger group, you can organize to watch at a location near you and the FrogWatch program will help you learn what to look for and how to track frogs.

There are lots of ways to get involved simply tracking frogs without getting too technical as well. FrogWatch British Columbia is a volunteer program where you pick a location, learn frog and toad calls, record your observations and send them in. This crew also has some great downloadable frog education guides that are really user friendly.

But, most importantly, the Ministry of Environment and UVic scientists stress that you can be a part of controlling the spread of these frogs by not moving tadpoles from ponds or other locations, not dumping frogs in the wild that you may have at home (you can introduce disease as well as start a new colony of frogs).

And, if you see a bullfrog, report it to Dodd by e-mailing him the location, time of day and other details at reportbullfrogs@gmail.com