Catching the Harborton Frog Shuttle

By Kelly Stevens

November is when a group of Linnton residents starts watching for frogs on the move. According to Oregon Zoo, “Forest Park is home to Portland’s largest population of red-legged frogs, a state-sensitive species.” When the conditions are just right, the frogs’ epic and perilous round-trip journey begins at dark from Forest Park, down Harborton Drive, to the wetlands beyond Highway 30, and back.

The frogs wait until it’s warm and wet enough to venture to the wetlands to breed/lay their eggs. When a team primarily led by Linnton-area residents, including Shawn Looney, Rob Lee, Jane Hartline, and Anne Squier, sees signs of imminent ideal conditions, they alert volunteers to be on standby. This movement can start as early as November and as late as January. In 2020, Shawn, Rob, and company asked the full team of volunteers to be ready by December 13.

Shawn has been involved with the frog shuttle since 2014, when she and her neighbor, Rob, were spurred to action after witnessing a frog massacre on a rainy night in 2013. These frog taxi volunteers commit to a whole season to spend cold, wet nights picking up frogs. Shawn shares about the process, “There are different co-captains and you have a volunteer team that commits to your night of the week. There are 80 to 90 volunteers during one week, for as long as it takes.” In 2020, the organizers held an orientation over Zoom (usually hosted at LCC)—covering the plan, safety, and tips for success, such as: you don’t want to be chasing the frogs; get in front of them; and don’t blind anyone with your headlamp! 

The frogs hop across Harborton Drive, encounter the silt fence set up by volunteers, and then are picked up. The migration includes Northern red-legged frogs as well as Western chorus frogs. When red-leggeds are in the transport buckets, they occasionally make a noise that sounds like a wild form of communication. The green, aptly named chorus frogs are the ones who make the most noise—the same noise you might imagine hearing at a pond. Above it all, you’ll hear the sporadic squeal from a few humans as they catch a wet frog for the first time of the season.

No volunteers cross Highway 30 on foot during this effort. Instead, the frogs are sorted and placed in buckets, ferried in vehicles over the highway and railroad tracks, and then released to hop on down to the wetlands. Once the frogs are done heading down, everyone focuses on getting them back to the forest. 

There is much data to gather and share from the annual frog shuttle. Volunteers sex and count the frogs by type and log the weather conditions. It is also a multi-agency effort: the volunteers have an ODOT Permit to be on the sides of Marina Way to transport the frogs; Multnomah County lets them be on Harborton Drive to catch the frogs; the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife lets the group handle them; West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District provides liability insurance; and there are multiple community partners.

While volunteers catch and transport as many frogs as they can, there are many dead frogs. Even if a frog somehow makes it across Highway 30 without assistance, it still has to cross active railroad tracks and navigate Marina Way. Shawn says, “It’s sad to see the ones that enter the road—they hop and stop. Every now and then, you’ll see one that makes it, but most likely you see a car or semi squish them.”

So, is there any other way to ferry these frogs besides volunteers taking a hands-on approach year after year? Funding to install a wildlife overpass or underpass is likely what’s needed. There are many examples of places where they have created ideal tunnel conditions for frogs and other wildlife. This type of project would be very expensive to install, but it would have a large impact by reducing wildlife mortality in Linnton. Says Shawn, “I hope in my lifetime that we can figure it out. My dream is that we will find a way to get the frogs back and forth on their own.”

To learn more about the Linnton frogs, visit www.linntonfrogs.org

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