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An Interview with Lori Salzer, Wildlife Biologist Lori Salzer is a wildlife biologist who has worked with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) since 1990. She was hired to work on a spotted owl database, and now also works on WDFW’s spotted frog study in Thurston County and manages the WDFW reptile and amphibian database. She also has worked on research projects for private industry, The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She is a graduate of The Evergreen State College.

Q: How did you get started working with spotted owls? A: I was hired by private industry to survey spotted owls in the Wenatchee National Forest. The survey work is done primarily at night. We used tapes of actual spotted owl calls and broadcast the calls with megaphones. Once we heard and located the owls, then we usually would go back in daylight hours to locate the actual nest. To find a nest we put out mice for the adult owls; they would swoop down, grab the mouse and, hopefully, fly right up to a nest. Spotted owls are fairly tolerant of humans, which made our job of locating pairs and nests easier. Spotted owls are listed as a state endangered species and a federal threatened species. Surveys for owls are done between March and August—the breeding season. WDFW continually analyzes spotted owl data and maintains a database on owl movements and reproductive success. Q: Now you're studying spotted frogs—why is WDFW involved with spotted frog studies? A: Spotted frogs are a state endangered species and a federal candidate species. Whenever we need to protect a species, we need to know its life history and habitat requirements. The study will help us protect known sites and, hopefully, will help us locate new sites. It’s a cooperative project by our agency, a timber company in Thurston County and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The project is at the end of its second year. We’ve been tracking the frogs’ movements seasonally, identifying the actual habitat that they use within the study area. There are two known sites in Thurston County, one we just found this year. The other two sites are on the Columbia Gorge. Oregon Spotted Frog Q: What new information have you gathered so far? A: We have information on the seasonal movements of the frogs, growth and survival rates and reproductive success. We will continue to gather data on the frogs at known sites and search for new populations as well. Q: How do you actually find the frogs to study? A: You just walk through the marsh really slowly until you see one and then catch it. You either catch them with your hands, depending on where they are, or with dip nets. To attach the transmitters we just use satin ribbon— pink— from the fabric store. The transmitter has a hole in it and we slip the ribbon through the hole to attach the transmitter. We start with ribbons about four inches long and fit them into belts for each frog. We slip it over their legs and pull it up to their waists. The transmitter is about the size of a thumbnail and has an antenna about five or six inches long. The transmitter emits a signal that we can hear with a receiver. The receiver emits a bleep and we follow it as it gets louder until we find the frog. The transmitters last seven to 18 weeks. We track between five and 15 frogs at a time. We have to re-capture the frogs and change their transmitters to keep them “on the air.” We also make a small incision in each adult frog’s back and implant a microchip. If we have the frogs in hand we can identify them individually because we can scan them with a scanner and it shows the number of each tag. This gives us information on individual movements as well as an estimate of the population. Columbia Spotted Frog Q: There has been a lot of news about amphibians declining worldwide — why do you think they are not doing well? A: A generality for almost all species that are declining is habitat loss or degradation, and sometimes predation by non-native species. The challenge with reptiles and amphibians is we still don’t have all the information on their ranges and habitat requirements. They’re a big concern right now, and they’re also a group that hasn’t been extensively studied. With some of the species we definitely know where we’re going to find them but with spotted frogs and some of the lesser-studied species there’s still work to be done. Q: What do you enjoy most about your job? A: When we find information that is going to help us manage a species in the future. And education. I do volunteer work on the Procession of the Species, which is part of Artwalk in Olympia. It’s a celebration of all the plants and animals of the world. School classes get involved. I help people make things, help them create their favorite species. It’s a fun way for people to learn about wildlife. Educating people about wildlife to me is one of the most important parts of our jobs because we need to work with the public to protect the wildlife of the state. If people don’t know about wildlife then they’re not interested in protecting it or supporting the work of natural resource agencies and other conservation organizations.