The humble frog has inhabited the earth for more than 200 million years, surviving mass extinctions - including the one that wiped out the dinosaurs - but today they are under threat.
With a passion for nature, Forestry Corporation NSW partnerships leader Jessica Brine had a vision to help save the frogs by implementing a number of breeding habitats throughout the Watagans State Forest.
"I just love the forest and I love providing different ways that people can come and enjoy the forest," she said.
"As a mother myself, I love to find ways that I can engage my children in caring for the bush and the forest and just getting them out into nature and absorbing what is around us."
Her dream came to life through partnerships between the Forestry Corporation NSW, the University of Newcastle and a number of other key stakeholders when 16 frog breeding ponds were officially opened on Wednesday, May 3 at the Olney State Forest.
"It's absolutely amazing to see everyone enjoying it, getting involved and looking for the frogs and hearing the croaks - it just makes every sleepless night and stressful moment totally one hundred per cent worth it," Ms Brine said.
The innovative habitat ponds have been strategically placed throughout the Watagan State Forest to help LittleJohn's Tree Frog and the giant burrowing frog species bolster resilience in the face of disease and shifting climates.
University of Newcastle conservation biologist Dr Alex Callen said while there was no magic bullet to fix the current extinction crisis, building resilience like frog ponds were critical to stemming further losses.
"More than two hundred species are already extinct from disease, another two-thousand four-hundred are in the same trajectory.
"Frogs respond well to landscape actions like creating additional breeding habitats. In the Watagans we have the opportunity to create the thin green line for at least two threatened frogs and other frogs that co-exist with them," she said.
"The muddy ponds we have created will also provide climatic refuge for many other forest fauna."
"Let the late night love songs chirped out by our local frogs be a sign of recovery," she said.
Dr Callen said the next step was to understand how the ponds build population numbers and combat disease and there was also potential for medical benefits to humans.
"Frogs have a cocktail of chemicals on their porous skin which protects them from bacterial and fungal infections, cocktails that we now recognise may have pharmaceutical benefits - skin secretions more effective than morphine; toxins that kill antibiotic resistant bacteria," she said.
Forestry Corporation NSW senior ecologist Chris Slade said monitoring of the ponds had been under way the last two months and he was already seeing a positive result.
"We've already seen success with frogs using the sites and starting to breed," he said.
"We hope to secure the presence of the frogs in the forest and hopefully add more habitat for breeding."
The project was made possible through funding from the Federal government's Bushfire Recovery Fund and support by NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment under the Saving our Species program.
In association with the Natural Resources Commission and the Australian Museum, Forestry Corporation NSW has also established Citizen Science monitoring sites to help understand the prevalence of frog species.
