Puget Sound starts here: Tracking amphibian health in the Anker pond

Jessica Sandoval, MS + Simone Des Roches, PhD

Priority Habitat and Species Research Section, Habitat Program, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

Stormwater ponds are common grey/green infrastructure around Puget Sound. They are designed to minimize the stormwater impacts of flooding, erosion, and pollution in receiving waters. Habitat is rarely incorporated into pond design and management. Yet, some ponds are used by wildlife. New planning paradigms could help stormwater infrastructure serve both engineering and biodiversity purposes when appropriate.

Our objective is to determine which stormwater pond conditions and management actions promote wildlife species diversity and abundance. We are surveying ponds throughout the Puget Sound region for birds, amphibians, and beavers, assessing habitat variation, measuring land cover, and evaluating environmental justice parameters in the neighborhoods surrounding ponds.

Pond surveys include point counts and acoustic recordings for birds, amphibian egg mass counts and larval trapping surveys, and visual observations for beaver sign (e.g., chew, dams). Habitat measurements include pond dimensions and estimating proportion of different vegetation cover, such as lawn/grass versus riparian trees.

The study also includes several non-stormwater reference “natural” sites where the same wildlife and pond attribute data are collected. These reference sites are not stormwater infrastructure, and their primary purpose is not stormwater management, although some are artificially constructed.

The natural pond at the Anker property in Kingston, WA serves as a natural reference site. Here we present data from year 1 of the study (2024). We completed an amphibian egg mass survey at Anker pond on March 6th, 2024 and completed larval amphibian trapping (capturing larval salamanders, tadpoles, and other aquatic species) on July 9th, 2024. We set out passive acoustic recording devices to record bird song in the winter and summer of 2024. Our collaborators at Saint Martin’s University and Wenatchee Valley college are processing and analyzing bird biodiversity data and acoustic recordings. Results will be available in 2026.

*We also documented egg masses from Green Frogs (Rana clamitans, which is a non-native species from eastern North America) in July 2024. Results – Larval amphibian trapping On July 9th, 2024, we returned to the pond in the summer to gather more data on amphibian breeding and survival. We dip-netted the pond and placed mesh-minnow traps overnight to capture amphibians. We detected 6 amphibian species in total.

Next Steps: With permission, we will continue to survey Anker pond for birds, amphibians, and beavers. We recorded winter bird calls in January 2025 and followed up with larval amphibian surveys in the late spring and summer. Final project reports can be expected in 2026.