If your frog-calling skills are a little rusty, better brush up! The state of Georgia is looking for some help:
Wildlife biologists need volunteers for the annual statewide calling frog survey, which starts Jan. 15.
John Jensen, a [Georgia Department of Natural Resources] senior wildlife biologist, said there are 75 survey routes but so far only 30 volunteers have come forward.
He said the volunteers are needed to help decipher the calls of Georgia's 31 frog species. The state is setting up baseline data on frogs so scientists can identify population trends.
Before they are assigned to one of the preset listening routes, volunteers have to pass an online test of their ability to audibly identify frog species.
Volunteers have to commit to a three-year stint. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that I'm not exactly surprised the state is having trouble filling a position that doesn't pay anything and requires three years of traipsing around the Georgia woods in January.
I know the state's not a position to start throwing money around (what state is, these days?). But couldn't they throw the volunteers a bone?
Like, maybe the one who ID's the most species of frogs gets to eat one take one home as a pet?
Zach Patton -- Executive Editor. Zach has written about a range of topics, including social policy issues and urban planning and design. Originally from Tennessee, he joined GOVERNING as a staff writer in 2004. He received the 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Journalism
E-mail: zpatton@governing.com 
Written and compiled by staff writers and editors, GOVERNING View is an on-the-ground, and sometimes behind-the-scenes, look at the topics we're covering in print and online. From notes on what's up in statehouses, county courthouses and city halls, to encounters with people, places and things, GOVERNING View is a window into the side of state and local government you don't always see.
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