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Field Trip
Frog-Friendly Rice Fields, Planting Trees in Goseong Border Area

Taking care of nature preservation in the inter-Korean border regions postulates one of the major working fields of the HSF Korea. A trip to the southern part of divided Goseong County from October 12th to October 13th was a great opportunity to check on the local developments and contribute to the work done in the region ourselves.

The two-day trip was meant to be used for the installation of frog ladders in Songjeong-Ri. After arriving and a shared lunch, members of the HSF Korea coupled up with Mr. Young Choi, member of Seoul KFEM, Mr. Young-Kook Byun and Mr. Myeong-Gi Lee from Goesong Country as well as Pastor Seok-Geun Chang, head of the environmental citizen group Sockcho, Yangyang, Goseong KFEM in order to install the ladders. Additionally, frog expert Professor Amaël Borzée from Nanjing Forestry University also joint and greatly supported the installation of the frog ladders.

 

After wintering on hills, frogs usually migrate to rice fields in spring and then back in autumn. However, because of an increasing number of more or less deep concrete trenches, built to drain the water from rice fields in modern Korean agricultural landscape, many reptiles and small mammals are not able to migrate back and forth. Moreover, they fall into these drains which then become deadly traps, ultimately having a disastrous affect on the local frog populations.

 

A decline in frog population has a negative effect on the whole eco system since frogs constitute an important part of the natural food chain and also on the rice yields that frogs naturally protect by eating bugs and snails. Thus, in order to save the frog population in Songjeong-Ri, frog ladders were built, consisting of enkamat-wire that frogs can climb in order to get out of the trenches.

 

On the second day, the team of HSF Korea met with Mr. Jae-Phill Ahn, Mr. Do-Young Kim, and Ms. Hye-In Choi from Goseong County to observe the area particularly affected by the devastating forest fires in 2018 and 2019. HSF promised to help with a model reforestation of a mixed forest in the area dominated by pine forests in May this year. It was great to see how diligently the reforestation project is carried out. In a talk with the representants of Goseong County, we also learnt that Goseong County has experienced an increase of tourists of nearly 40% amid the current pandemic. While foreign tourists are unable to come, the current situation has burst local tourists to visit the area.

Building the frog ladders has met with a lot of media attention, resulting in articles from Seoul News, Gangwon-do People's Daily, Gwangju Dream, and No Cut News (all only in Korean). Professor Borzée also wrote an article on his website (in English) which you can find here.

 

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