About Us
Our Mission
Welcome to FROGS ARE GREEN, an organization created to increase awareness about the catastrophic decline of frog and other amphibian populations and to advocate for conservation measures to help protect them.
Why frogs and not some other animal or cause? Frogs and other amphibians are disappearing at an alarming rate. One third of all amphibian species around the globe are threatened with extinction. Frogs are extremely sensitive to environmental threats such as acid rain and global warming. They are also threatened by invasive species and habitat loss.
Recently, the deadly chytrid fungus has spread around the world, devastating amphibian populations. Many frog species are in immediate danger of extinction unless urgent action is taken to prevent it. In the words of Vance Vredenbrug, professor at San Francisco State University who is conducting research on the ecology, evolution, and conservation of amphibians: “Chytridiomycosis is devastating amphibians on a scale never seen before. With over 500 species affected, chytridiomycosis is the worst case in recorded history of a disease driving vertebrate species to extinction.”
Frogs, toads, and other amphibians (salamanders, newts, and caecilians) serve many vital functions in the ecosystems in which they live. Their disappearance is happening so fast and at such an enormous scale that it has been compared to the extinction of the dinosaurs. And yet most people are unaware of the crisis.
In her speeches, Wangari Maathai, an African environmentalist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, often uses the disappearance of frogs as a metaphor for an unhealthy environment. Maathai remembers as a child drinking clean and pure water from the stream near her home. She played among arrowroot leaves and was fascinated by the tadpoles wriggling through the clear water. This was the world she inherited from her parents.
Yet when she returned to her home in Kenya many years later, she found that trees had been cut down, the land polluted. As she noted in her Nobel acceptance speech:
Today, over 50 years later, the stream has dried up, women walk long distances for water, which is not always clean, and children will never know what they have lost. The challenge is to restore the home of the tadpoles and give back to our children a world of beauty and wonder.
We are determined to preserve for future generations the outdoor music—the chorus of frog song—that we remember from our childhoods. Our hope is that can we leave the “home of the tadpoles” green and healthy for future generations. Please help spread the message that healthy frogs equal a healthy green planet.
About Us
Mary Jo and Susan photographed outside Hoboken City Hall by Doug Bauman for the Jersey Journal.
Susan Newman, a brand identity designer and environmentalist, is co-founder of FROGS ARE GREEN and hopes to show how she feels about the Earth and to help spread the message that we need to save frogs and other amphibians.
A graduate of the School of Visual Arts, Susan spent her early career working as a graphic designer and art director for various NYC publishers, including Macmillan and Penguin. In 1994, she established her own design firm, Susan Newman Design, Inc., www.susannewmandesign.com. Her clients range from individuals and small businesses to multinational corporations and span the U.S.A and abroad.
Susan has received numerous awards from organizations and publications including the Art Directors Club of New York, Desi, Graphis, the Print Regional Design Annual, The Society of Illustrators, Logolounge, and Graphic Design USA. Her work is represented in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress.
Susan has donated her design work to various organizations including the Hoboken 9/11 Memorial Committee, Jubilee Center Hoboken for Children, The Central Avenue Special Improvement District, www.jcheights.com, Actors Shakespeare Company at NJCU, www.ascnj.org, Hudson Theatre Ensemble, www.hudsontheatreensemble.com and Chameleon Theatre Company Ltd.
Mary Jo and Susan photographed on the steps of Hoboken City Hall by Doug Bauman for the Jersey Journal.
Mary Jo Rhodes, co-founder of FROGS ARE GREEN, grew up in Oyster Bay, Long Island, where she loved to explore both the woods and the seashore.
After graduating from Denison University, she received her M.S. in library science from Columbia University. Mary Jo has worked in book publishing and book printing and currently works as a freelance proofreader and copyeditor for publishers and individuals.
Mary Jo co-wrote Seahorses and Sea Dragons; Sea Turtles; Dolphins, Seals, and other Sea Mammals; Octopuses and Squid, and the other titles in the Undersea Encounters series, published by Scholastic Library Publishing. Her website www.maryjorhodes.com (designed by Susan) was selected as an ALA Great Site for Kids.
For the past few years, Mary Jo has been reading with increasing alarm about the catastrophic amphibian decline. With FROGS ARE GREEN, she hopes to increase public awareness about this environmental crisis.
