I am pleased to announce that the 1st Annual Frog Poetry Contest is officially underway! Both professional and amateur poets are welcome to enter the contest. Entry is free and there are cash prizes and other giveaways:
http://savethefrogs.com/poetry

Our goal is to have thousands of schools worldwide taking part in the Frog Poetry Contest on Save The Frogs Day – April 28th, 2009:
http://savethefrogs.com/day

The Frog Poetry Contest will promote awareness of the amphibian extinction crisis by actively involving a wide sector of society, and we plan to advertise the contest in school systems worldwide. The best Frog Poems will be used to create a book of Frog Poetry that will be published and distributed internationally. All proceeds from sales of the book will go towards SAVE THE FROGS! amphibian conservation efforts. The book will be illustrated by the winning entries from our concurrent 1st Annual Frog Art Contest:
http://savethefrogs.com/artists/art-contest-2009.html
The Japanese poet Basho wrote a famous haiku in the 17th century:
古池や
蛙飛込む
水の音
Furuike ya
Kawazu tobikomu
Mizu no oto

Which is translated as:

The old pond
A frog jumps in
The sound of water.

Please send us your 21st century poems of any length, form or style.

The old pond
Frogs are in danger
Poets jump in.

Have a Basho!

Thanks to SAVE THE FROGS! Volunteer Elspeth Murray (the Poet Laureate of Frogs and 1st Lady of Frog Poetry) for conceiving the soon to be well known genre of Frog Poetry and directing the Frog Poetry Contest.

We’re working hard to promote the Frog Poetry Contest to schools worldwide. We need to raise funds to advertise the contest in Scholastic Instructor, a magazine read by thousands of K-8 teachers and school board personnel.

CAN YOU CHIP IN $10 TO HELP US PLACE THIS ADVERTISEMENT?

You can donate securely to fund the jackpot at: https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=20508

Prefer to send a check? Please use this address:
SAVE THE FROGS!
Frog Art Contest
P.O. Box 2145
Centreville, VA 20122 USA

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COOL FROG FACT OF THE DAY:
The Northern & Southern Gastric Brooding frogs Rheobatrachus vitellinus and R. silus lived in the rainforests of eastern Australia. These amazing frogs could actually shut down their gastric juices while rearing their young inside their stomachs! They therefore held great promise for advances in human medicine, as research on these frogs may have resulted in a cure for ulcers. Unfortunately, the gastric-brooding frogs vanished within a few years of being discovered by scientists. The health of humans and frogs is clearly intertwined.

Read more Cool Frog Facts, and see a tiny R. silus froglet emerging from its mother's mouth, at:
http://savethefrogs.com/cool-frog-facts

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HOW TO HELP SAVE THE FROGS! - TIP OF THE DAY:

Do NOT use pesticides.
Pesticides and herbicides are toxic chemicals that generally undergo little to no testing on amphibians prior to their being approved for use. Unfortunately, the law of gravity has it that many of these pesticides end up in waterways, where amphibians live and breed. To make matters worse, amphibians have permeable skin that is highly absorbent. Populations of the endangered mountain yellow-legged frog Rana muscosa that live downwind of highly agricultural areas in California's Central Valley have disappeared at a significantly higher rate than populations protected from the windborne contaminants.

Atrazine, perhaps the most commonly used herbicide on the planet (33 million kg are applied each year in the US alone), can cause hermaphroditism in frogs (males grow female sex organs) at ecologically relevant doses, and can reduce survivorship in salamanders. Roundup (also sold as Touchdown Total) is lethal to gray treefrog and leopard frog tadpoles, and most likely a host of other as yet untested frog species. Roundup is the 2nd most commonly applied herbicide in the USA; it's produced by Monsanto, the same folks who gave us Agent Orange. Over half of the DNA found in frogs is also found in humans, so if these pesticides kill frogs, imagine what they do to us!

Find out more ways to help SAVE THE FROGS! at:
http://savethefrogs.com/how-to-help

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HOW TO HELP SPREAD THE WORD - TIP OF THE DAY:

You can help us advertise our 1st Annual Frog Poetry Contest and 1st Annual Frog Art Contest by placing these flyers up at your school or office:
http://www.savethefrogs.com/poetry/images/poetry-contest-flyer.pdf
http://www.savethefrogs.com/artists/images/Frog-Art-Contest-Flyer-lowres.pdf

Print them in color if possible, and deliver them to your school’s Art and English teachers if you are a student.

Find out more ways to SPREAD THE WORD at:
http://savethefrogs.com/spread-the-word

Thanks for your support, and please forward this email to your friends!
Kerry

http://savethefrogs.com/kerrykriger.html

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