Group jumps in to save frog

Andrew Mathieson
A GEELONG conservation group is saving an endangered species from extinction along the Barwon River.
Southern bell frog numbers have continued to diminish in recent years on Geelong’s biggest fresh waterway.
Volunteers have been conducting restoration works to reinstate five separate wetland habitats on the Barwon and a southern bell frog habitat along a trail beside the river.
Conservation Volunteers Geelong team leader Andrew Quick said he was now confident several measures undertaken in the past 12 months could help restore a larger population of the frog in the city.
Mr Quick said the frog was a victim of a century of development in Geelong.
“The river has been used and abused for 100 years down at the Pakington Street end and we’re trying to restore the frog’s habitat,” he said.
“We’re putting in a lot of grasses again, cutting a lot of the willows and letting the light get back in again.”
Mr Quick said the southern bell frog project included removing invasive weeds from degraded wetlands, planting indigenous wetland vegetation and monitoring “visitor impact”.
The Barwon River’s natural wetlands and native vegetation provided essential habitat for the endangered-list frog, he said.
“It seems to be working,” Mr Quick said of the conservation efforts.
“Even this year we have had a lot more frog species than normal.
“I’m sure I heard my first bell frog (last week). Well, I’m 95 per cent sure.”
Mr Quick said the species, sometimes known as the growling grass frog, had also been spotted in Belmont’s Gheringhap wetlands.
The frog’s survival was “another link in the chain” for the region’s eco-system and particularly important to other bird and wildlife species.
Mr Quick said land degradation, development and flooding in the Barwon Valley had impacted adversely on the frog’s habitat.