About 300 people attended the two day Midwest Declining Amphibians Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, hosted by the Milwaukee Public Museum on March 20-21, 1998.  This was a joint meeting of the Central and Great Lakes Division Working Groups, of the Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force.  The conference was organized by Gary Casper, chair of the Great Lakes Working Group, with assistance from Christopher Phillips (chair of the Central Division Working Group), and Michael Lannoo (US DAPTF
Coordinator).

The new research presented by scientists investigating potential causes of frog deformities attracted national attention, including network television.  There is increasing evidence implicating pesticides as causal agents, with retinoids or retinoid-like compounds suspect.  The evidence now suggests that of the three leading hypotheses, chemical contaminants should now be considered the most likely (more so than either parasites or UV light).

There were 42 papers presented, and a panel discussion on amphibian malformities.  Topics included survey and monitoring reports, population biology and ecology, and malformity causes and statistics.  Abstracts are available through the Great Lakes Declining Amphibians web site.

Publication of a proceedings is being investigated.

The mix of scientists, natural resource managers, and students attending came from as far away as Maryland, California and Guatemala. Participating agencies included seven state DNRs, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Illinois Natural History Survey, the US Geological Survey, the Salk Institute, many universities and colleges, the Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Health Center, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Patuxtent Wildlife Research Center, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research
Center.

Reporters and camera crews from NBC Nightly News (Chicago), ABC (New York), National Public Radio (WUWM), Outdoor Wisconsin, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, and the Washington Post attended.  The conference was also covered by CNN.

  For more information, check out a web page maintained by Gary Casper or the Wisconsin Herpetology Homepage.