Reporter’s Note

Thank you to Hayley who took this photo and taught me how to catch a bullfrog. Reach through the frog.

In “Nature Next Door” my goal is to first bring the audience to a familiar suburban pond, surrounded by cattails and songbirds as well as sidewalks and houses, to introduce a lesser-known frog surviving in the heart of the city and, ultimately, to explore how humans and nature can coexist. 

This storytelling journey began in a science journalism class at the University of Oregon in January 2023, and it quickly grew to become a multi-year endeavor, and my thesis project.

Named for the spots that dot its back, the Oregon spotted frog is native to Oregon. It used to live throughout the state. However, what’s become a now familiar narrative for threatened species, due to land development, invasive predators, and climate change, up to 90% of its historic range has been lost.

I discovered the spotted frog reading the news last year. As a journalist and science communicator, the article immediately intrigued me: why hadn’t I heard of these frogs before? Where could they still be found? Could they be saved?

These questions led me deep into research on water hydrology, conservation measures, and the frogs themselves, reading through biological reports and calling experts. Ultimately, I got in contact with Jay Bowerman, a herpetologist who’s considered the leading expert on spotted frogs. 

I asked Jay – where could I find these frogs? I imagined hiking through the backcountry to a remote, pristine alpine lake, a place far away from humans. Instead, Jay took me to a small artificial pond between a yoga studio and a housing complex in downtown Bend. 

Visiting the pond, amidst walkers and cars passing by, I discovered not only the frogs, living their unexpectedly urban life, but also a couple who care deeply about them and the natural world they represent. 

Bob and Pat Fulton, who live with the pond out their backdoor, are its self-appointed guardians – watching for low water and disruptive visitors. Referring to the pond as a little treasure, they describe how caring for the frogs has created a nursery for Canada geese and red-winged blackbirds, muskrats and turtles. 

Bob and Pat quickly became good friends, lending me a snorkel and encouraging me to stay at their home when I visit. They even organized a neighborhood gathering where Jay and I shared our research and photos with more than a dozen locals last summer.

Jay and I giving a presentation about the Oregon spotted frog in June 2023 to a local gathering of frog-interested-folks from the neighborhood near the Old Mill Pond.  Thanks to Bob and Pat for organizing the event, sharing their home, and taking this behind-the-scenes photo!

I also met Jodi Wilmoth, a biochemist-turned-bullfrog-hunter who invited me into her home to check out her freezer full of frogs and took me out paddling down the Little Deschutes to understand what it’s really like to get your hands muddy for conservation.

Inspired by the unsung impacts of these passionate individuals, “Nature Next Door” aims to spotlight their stories and to show how nature is often closer than we expect and more resilient than we imagine.

The work, informed by my studies in journalism, science communication, and spatial data science, includes videos, maps, and data graphics as well as photos I took, one of which is on exhibit at the Bend High Desert Museum in spring 2024.

This photo came from my first encounter with an Oregon spotted frog, visiting the Old Mill Pond with Jay Bowerman on a cool April afternoon in 2023. I didn’t realize it when I took this photo, but it seems to capture an essence of nature that speaks with people I’ve shared it with.

Jodi Wilmoth connected me with the High Desert Museum who were looking for imagery of the endemic, Threatened frog species for their exhibit Endangered in the High Desert. The exhibit reflects on how the endangered species act impacts species across the West, on display for a year until July 2024.

When I started this journey last spring, I was focused on the frogs, but I’ve since realized this story is not just about the spotted frog — it’s about the pond, the people that ripple out from it, and the lessons we learn by pausing to look deeply into it.

The Oregon spotted frog, like many struggling species in our rapidly-changing world, is an indicator of general ecosystem health. While trying to balance human needs for water and land use, by pausing to protect species like the spotted frog, we foster a host of ecosystem services like clean water, fertile soil and vibrant nature spaces that benefits everyone.  

I hope this story evokes a sense of wonder and awe about the natural world hidden in our own backyards and encourages us to reflect on how, like Jay and Jodi and Bob and Pat, we can each be a hero in the story.

Thank Yous

This story would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of too many individuals.

Foremost, this story would not have materialized without the environment of Science Story, led by Professor Torsten Kjellstrand and mentor Dennis Dimick. Their continued support throughout the process, from editing and offering advice to putting up with late-night emails and feverish-field phone calls. They made this work possible.

Casey Shoop, advisor from the Clark Honors College on my Thesis Committee, helped navigate the paperwork and anxieties of completing a capital-T project. 

Mark Blaine, thank you for your drone. Without it, a third of the media in this project wouldn’t exist.

Additionally, the story wouldn’t be here without the countless hours spent talking through the storyline with my parents, who patiently listened and offered valuable feedback.

In other circles, I was encouraged through the lows and stoked onward during the highs by a peer-turned-journalist-best-friend. You’re an amazing editor and friend, Eliza.

Countless individuals helped inform this reporting, from scientists at the US Fish and Wildlife Service to the US Geological Survey and local historians at the Deschutes County Historical Society and the Bend Library, and to each I am extremely grateful. Conservation issues are complex, and I hope I have woven together the pieces adequately from the many phone calls, visits, and archival and online research over the past year and a half.

And to those that let me into their lives, you have inspired a passion and commitment in me to continue to seek out stories like this — stories that connect people with place. 

This story won the 2024 Clark Honors College President’s Award for Thesis, awarded to an “outstanding thesis of especially
distinguished quality” as selected by honors faculty.

                                                                                                                                                                               Sincerely,

                                                                                                                                                                                         Eden McCall

For more work at the intersection of science communication and multimedia storytelling, visit: edenimccall.com