Pennsylvania graduate student saving frogs and toads in the wild and at home

Aaron Capouellez isn’t waiting until he receives his master's degree to make a difference in wildlife conservation in Pennsylvania.

At 26, he's working on his master's at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and he has already founded a nonprofit conservation organization, created a media brand company and built his own weather station.

As a teen, Capouellez of Johnstown enjoyed finding and rescuing frogs and toads and learning how to improve their environment. He's looking forward to sharing his knowledge and passion for wildlife with others.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications with a minor in biology from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.  Now, he's working toward an advanced degree in biology with a focus on herpetology, which is the study of reptiles and amphibians.

A year ago, he founded the organization PA Woods and Forests, which holds outdoor events like guided hikes in Somerset, Cambria, Westmoreland, Indiana, Bedford, Erie, Blair, and Tioga counties.

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He and a group of volunteers have nighttime adventures to find frogs and play recordings of frogs to teach participants sounds to recognize in the wilderness. An event at Kimberly Run attracted about 40 people where they learned about the reptiles and plants in the area.

“They last somewhere around 90 minutes to two hours based on how the night’s going,” he said.

They have millipede roundups, where they ask people to go out on bike trails and move the millipedes off through-ways to protect them from bikes and hikers. Capouellez provides a presentation on the value millipedes provide to the environment as well as how to safely pick them up.

He’s working on making the organization a 501C3, a nonprofit. He serves as the president of the six-member board, and they are looking to expand. Overall, he has about 20 volunteers involved in this effort.

“We have a very clear vision of outreach and citizen science within our organization,” he said.

This is also the fifth year of Frog Week, July 31 to Aug. 6, where he spends time in central and western Pennsylvania to save frogs and toads.

“The whole goal of Frog Week is a mix between citizen science and social media because all of the citizen science work is trying to rescue them from the roads and helping them get to their breeding grounds, helping their young, making sure they are able to make it until they can go from an egg to a tadpole to a frog to get out of the water," he said.

“The project is all about helping the animals, the American toad, wood frog, the Eastern Gray tree frog and the Pickerel frog to continue to thrive and survive in our area.”

“We’re trying to get people out there. We’re trying to get people to focus on the conservation of their own backyards. Our tagline for the nonprofit is ‘Restoring habitat for overlooked species in your backyard,'" he said.

His team also helps wounded and injured frogs and partners with wildlife rehabilitators on their care.

He releases videos on YouTube through Woods and Forests Media of the group’s work that’s done with frogs from February though July of each year.

Woods and Forests Media is a brand he created and owns to help fund his efforts, including the care of his frogs and toads. It’s a social media platform to share environmental, conservation, and pet care media including podcasting and videos.

To help show habitat areas and woodlands, he’s in the process of getting a commercial remote pilot certificate to fly his drone for conservation photography and video.

He also has an educator’s permit through the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission that allows him to house and care for multiple reptiles and amphibians. He has American toads, wood frogs and Gray Tree frogs in a controlled temperature environment in his home.

He’s able to see and hear the animals to learn from them and to educate others about these creatures.

“I want to create a large enclosure that’s going to feature all the native species we care about,” he said about making a habitat that tries to replicate the conditions and climate of a woodland and also a sphagnum bog.

To simulate nature, he invested in a weather station for his backyard to monitor the conditions there as well as the temperature and precipitation at other sites in the region that are on the same weather service network.

“The goal is to see what the weather conditions are to help with the nonprofit’s work, but then also to use the weather station to try and create, as best as I can, artificial weather and climate conditions for the animals inside the enclosure and try to replicate a higher humidity, rainstorms, foggy days or thunderstorms,” he said.

The enclosed habitat will create collaborative opportunities for people to be up close and personal with the reptiles, amphibians and plants.

After finishing his master’s degree in December, he’s hopeful to find a job with a nonprofit, government agency, conservation district or zoo.

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Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Frog week, amphibians, toads conservation, habitat