I became involved in the frog project after school started. Unfortunately, I was not part of the original frog discovery group. Since the beginning of all our research, I have been part of the group who was tested water and I have taken part in gathering vertebrate, gathering frogs and recording deformities. I have also set "traps" in Nye Pond to catch small creatures and used large nets to gather snails, leaches and any other animal that lives in the mucky weeds that float at the top of the water. I have even helped out with the frog home page. I've tried to be involved with as much as I can because I've been having such a great time learning everything. I don't want to miss out on anything interesting!
When I first found out about the whole discovery, I was really amazed. I couldn't even imagine what a frog would look like with only 3 legs or with 5! My friend, Elaine Farley, was who I heard the news from first. I was really excited for her when I learned that biologists and other scientists had shown an interest. I was also jealous that she was involved in such an interesting project. I was delighted to find out that I could be too!
I've really enjoy telling people about everything involving our research. I haven't been bothered by the press at all. In fact, I love being interviewed! I find it really interesting when I read or see something about our work. It's fun to find errors in what is said in the news reports.
I really have mixed opinions on theories for the cause of the deformities. It makes a lot of sense to me that it would be pesticides. That was my first theory. After I became more informed, I started to think maybe it was parasites that were at fault. The evidence from California made it seem very possible. The testing that was done to reproduce the process of parasites boring into orifices really made it convincing. But then there are the ideas of heavy metals. It seems to be a great coincidence that there were deformed frogs found in Meeker County. That area has nearly the same elevation as the Nye pond, both ponds were reconstructed by the government, and they are both in big agricultural areas.
The similarities between the two ponds are quite a coincidence. It is too bad the Meeker County discovery was brought forth so late. It's going to be hard to research now. There are so many strong possibilities that it makes it hard to choose which is the most likely.
I'm concerned that having these frogs in the condition they are may have a great effect on other animals in the Eco system. What happens to the animals that eat frogs? What about the animals that frogs eat? Is the insect population going to be different because they aren't at such a risk of being eaten? Are the plants around the pond effected in any way? The effects of this problem may be greater than we have realized so far. It really worries me that more may be going on than we've found.
I have learned an incredible amount of things so far from this project. How many freshman do you hear of who know how to perform nitrate and dissolved oxygen tests? I sure haven't heard of many. Besides that I have learned how to ask the right questions to problems I needed answers to. For example, I found that it feels really great to be deeply involved in a project, even with all the responsibilities that I have taken on because of it. I have learned that an innocent act can have profound effects. I know I haven't even realized half of the things that I have learned. I have found all this work so incredibly interesting. I really hope that we find a cause for this problem. I know we will. I also hope we can learn the causes of the derformities. That way we'll be able to prevent it from happening in the future. It would be really sad if this were to happen again. I know that this project will always have some effect on society in some way. A project like this will have changed something, in some way. Maybe not drastically but it will have some effect.
You can write to Betsy at bkroon@mncs.k12.mn.us
Updated on 2-22-96 by Ryan Fisher