Green & Golden Bell Frog habitat creation and management workshop

The NSW Department of Planning and Environment and Sydney Olympic Park Authority invite you to a workshop led by expert practitioners from Government agencies, universities and the private sector. This workshop will enable participants to learn from successful case studies and current research, as well as provide access to industry leaders to discuss effective, practical tools for Green and Golden Bell Frog habitat design, management and conservation.

Venue: Education Centre, Bicentennial Park, Sydney Olympic Park

Parking: Available in the carpark P10F

Bookings: EventBrite

Registrations close 27 March 2023; places are limited

Program:

• The Green and Golden Bell Frog: Saving Our Species program – Dr Enhua Lee NSW Department of Planning and Environment
• Review of bell frog ecology and habitat requirements – Dr Alex Callen, University of Newcastle.
• Designing and managing habitat for bell frogs at Sydney Olympic Park - Visit the Brickpit and learn how habitats has been actively managed through manipulation of terrestrial and aquatic habitat elements.
• The influence of Gambusia holbrooki on site selection by bell frogs – Lynne Matthews from the University of Newcastle will share the results of a mesocosm experiment to understand the influence of Gambusia presence on occupancy and breeding site preferences by male & female bell frogs
• The FATS Greenacre Project – Dr Arthur White will share information on a project initiated in 2020 on disused land. With support of Strathfield Council, the site was cleared, re-contoured and ponds installed. Extensive bell frog surveys identified a small population in Coxs Creek Reserve. Bell frogs have now colonised and bred in the new site without the need for active translocation.
• Molonglo Catchment Rehydration Initiative – restoring function to the upper Molonglo River floodplain for bell frogs – join Dr Carolyn Hall to explore this landscape scale project modelled on the highly successful Mulloon Rehydration Initiative that will implement targeted wetland interventions, including instream structures and floodplain earthworks.
• Improving translocation outcomes for bell frogs - Dr John Gould will share findings of a translocation project that was a mitigation measure at a remediation site by the University of Newcastle; exploring the impact of translocation distance and other key factors on the risk of animal return.
• Planes, trains and automobiles – using sound analysis software to complement acoustic monitors for detecting the green and golden bell frog - One of the difficulties in using bioacoustic software to detect the call of the bell frog in acoustic monitoring data has been the low frequency of its call, which usually exists in a soundscape dominated by anthropogenic noise largely in the same frequency range. Dr Alex Cullen will discuss the positives and the pitfalls of using this software for bell frog detection.