Frog conservationist hosting workshop to get people to care about frogs

“I hope people will have more of an empathy for frogs and a better understanding of the issues they’re facing,” said Matt Ellerbeck, frog conservationist. Photo provided by Matt Ellerbeck

By Brittany Woodcock

BELLEVILLE – Matt Ellerbeck, a frog conservationist, is hosting a workshop this month in hopes that people will start to have an empathy for frogs and the important role they play in the ecosystem.

When Ellerbeck was a little boy, he spent his summers trying to stop his grandparents from using frogs as bait.

“My grandparents actually owned a bait shop when I was very little. I used to go in the back and let the frogs out, as a kid, because I felt bad for them.” he said. “Eventually, they stopped carrying frogs after that.”

When he got older, he started spending his summers at a campground with his grandparents where he would go down to the ponds and swamps to observe frogs, he said.

While he was there, his grandfather and his friends used frogs as fishing bait until Ellerbeck talked them out of it, he said.

He’s turned that passion into a career and launched a project last year to help save frogs.

Save All Frogs is an initiative to raise awareness about frog conservation by outreach education through kid clubs, conservation areas and different schools across Ontario.

In these workshops, Ellerbeck teaches people about the declining population of frogs, what they can do as individuals to contribute to their repopulation, the benefits that frogs provide to humans and a natural history of them.

Ellerbeck says that he hopes this workshop will make people “have more of an empathy for frogs and a better understanding of the issues they’re facing. Also an appreciation of what frogs do for us.”

One of the things frogs do is prey heavily on mosquitos and other pests that carry around diseases.

These diseases include West Nile, Zika virus, Lyme disease and Malaria.

Frogs are also an important part of keeping wetlands, a natural protection against floods and droughts, in a healthy state.

The workshop will take place at the Quinte Conservation Area on March 25 at 6:30 p.m.