Anke Maria Hoefer has been working with FrogWatch since 2011 and is encouraging volunteers to nominate for the 2026 ACT Landcare Awards. Photo: ACT Landcare.
Do you know the difference between a whistling tree frog and a common eastern froglet? How about a striped marsh frog or a smooth toadlet?
The volunteers at FrogWatch do and their work is dedicated to ensuring the conservation of the 22 different frog species that call Canberra home.
One of the leaders at FrogWatch is Anke Maria Hoefer and over the past 10 years she has trained hundreds of Canberrans on how to monitor and highlight shifts in frog behaviours and characteristics.
In her time at FrogWatch, the conservation group has helped bring back the locally extinct green and golden bell frog, worked alongside researchers from the University of Canberra, established “frog spas” and “saunas” at wetlands, supported night-time surveys and monitored newly released captive-bred frogs.
Ms Hoefer said she was proud of the work that she and FrogWatch have done, but admitted that without the time and dedication of many volunteers, it would not have been as successful as it had been.
“This frog watch program has been running since 2002 and is one of the longest-standing amphibian citizen science programs in the world,” she said.
“If it were just researchers, without the extra hands and extra eyes and extra brains, it would not have been possible to have done half the things that we have.
“Citizen scientists mean we can have so many more hands and feet on the ground. They so freely give their time, their intellect, their power, their humour, to carry these projects and it is so lovely to see that these people do it so selfishly.
“In turn, it means we can learn more about frogs and take better care of them.”
With nominations for the 2026 ACT Landcare Awards closing on 14 June, Ms Hoefer said she would love to see as many volunteers from FrogWatch and other environmental groups nominate as possible.
“People don’t volunteer for recognition, but the Landcare Awards are a really important way to celebrate the thousands of hours people quietly put into caring for this region,” she said.
“Many of the projects I’ve worked with, including Frog Watch, are really driven by my volunteers, their feedback, what they want to do, what they don’t enjoy so much, where they see potential and what they would like to learn.
“It is so nice to see people with that keen eye and that love for the local environment. It will be nice for these people to be recognised for their work, because they are our unsung heroes.”
