Frogs and firefighting benefit from dams
From the Winter 2008 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.
Forests NSW ecologist, Adam Fawcett, at one of the firefighting dams in the Watagan forests. A range of frogs have taken to the dams and are being monitored. Photo by David Barnes/Forests NSW Image Library; Inset: Heath frogs have been heard calling in the dams. Photo Forests NSW Image Library
A practical need to provide firefighting water in a string of dams across State forests in the Watagan forest area west of Newcastle is still delivering results years after they were established.
It’s a double benefit: as well as a water supply, Forests NSW scientists and ecologists have used the dams as an ongoing field study to determine how frogs colonise new areas.
“It has provided us with the opportunity to learn how to construct dams should there be a need to support or attract a particular frog species,” says Forests NSW ecologist, Adam Fawcett.
“We have been so successful that the threatened species, the heath frog (Litoria littlejohnii), has been found calling at several of these dams.
“Now we are in the position of ensuring the safety of the frogs after having constructed the habitat that helped preserve them.”
Forests NSW does this by ensuring that 10 metre buffer zones around the dam are maintained during harvest or other events, where harvesting machinery is excluded and no logs are permitted to be felled or hauled. The dams are still accessible for firefighting purposes.
Frank Lemckert, NSW DPI research officer, has been investigating the changes in colonisation of dams by frog species over time.
As the vegetation changes around the dam, so do the frog species that inhabit the area change from those which favour the bare necessities of a new earth dam to those which use the emerging reeds and then later the overhanging vegetation.
“One of the original firefighting dams had been damaged over the years by crayfish which drilled holes into the dam wall,” said Adam.
“We took the opportunity during the drought to repair the wall and the dam is now providing habitat for frogs again.
“Ongoing management of this and other sites has improved our protection of habitat for threatened frogs and maintained a permanent water source for firefighting.”
Howard Spencer - Public Affairs & Media
