Amphibians in Managed Woodlands: Tools for Family Forestland Owners
Woodland Fish & Wildlife • 2017 Amphibians in Managed Woodlands Tools for Family Forestland Owners Authors: Lauren Grand, OSU Extension, Ken Bevis, Washington Department of Natural Resources Edited by: Fran Cafferata Coe, Cafferata Consulting Pacific Tree (chorus) Frog Introduction good indicators of habitat quality (e.g., Amphibians are among the most ancient habitat diversity, habitat connectivity, water vertebrate fauna on earth. They occur on all quality). Amphibians also play a key role in continents, except Antarctica, and display a food webs and nutrient cycling as they are dazzling array of shapes, sizes and adapta- both prey (eaten by fish, mammals, birds, tions to local conditions. There are 32 species and reptiles) and predators (eating insects, of amphibians found in Oregon and Wash- snails, slugs, worms, and in some cases, ington. Many are strongly associated with small mammals). The presence of forest freshwater habitats, such as rivers, streams, salamanders has also been positively cor- wetlands, and artificial ponds. While most related to soil building processes (Best and amphibians spend at least part of their life- Welsh 2014). cycle in water, some species are fully terres- Landowners can promote amphib- trial, spending their entire life-cycle on land ian habitat on their property to improve or in the ground, generally utilizing moist overall ecosystem health and to support areas within forests (Corkran and Thoms the species themselves, many of which 2006, Leonard et. al 1993). have declining or threatened populations. The following sections of this publica- Photo by Kelly McAllister. Amphibians are of great ecological impor- tance and can be found in all forest age tion describe amphibian habitats, which classes.
[Show full text]