Where are the TAMP routes located?

Forty-eight TAMP routes were randomly assigned across Tennessee by the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program. The map below shows the approximate location of the start points for each of the routes.

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What is involved in running a TAMP route?

To volunteer for a TAMP route, you must first complete a 1/2 day workshop that is designed to familiarize each volunteer with the methodology used in the TAMP program. If listening stations have not yet been established on your route, you will learn how to establish the stations at the TAMP workshop. Then, four times per year, you will run the route and send in your completed data form.

TAMP routes are not for everyone. Since you cannot start running the route until 30 minutes after sunset, during the summer months you will be out fairly late at night. Often routes are not conveniently located, so you may spend an hour or more driving to and from the route start point. Often, the weather conditions that are favorable for running a TAMP route (after a warm front that brings rain) are unfavorable for driving. It takes a dedicated naturalist to run these routes and complete the necessary data forms. But the rewards are contributing real scientific data to our knowledge base about Tennessee's frogs and toads. If you record a species that is a new county record, you name will forever accompany that record in the Atlas of Amphibians in Tennessee that is kept by Austin Peay State University.

I have a pond in my backyard that I would like to monitor. Can this be a part of TAMP?

Due to the high number of wetland sites owned by individuals across the state, TAMP cannot accept information from individually owned sites. TAMP does accept data from sites owned by institutions like the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and large metro parks. The best program for a private wetland owner to contribute data to is the Frogwatch Program,