Changemaker
Jessica Mohlman
TL;DR
The wildlife ecologist who led the bird-voiced treefrog research behind The Call of the Swamp. She co-wrote the 2021 field report in Outdoor Illinois Journal with John Crawford.
Jessica Mohlman led the bird-voiced treefrog project at the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center and was the project lead on The Call of the Swamp. In 2021 she wrote up a field season for Outdoor Illinois Journal with two student interns and John Crawford. When the film premiered in November 2023 her title was Research Coordinator and Assistant Scientist. She does not appear on the center's current staff listing, so no present role is claimed for her here.
Mohlman works with an amphibian almost nobody sees. The bird-voiced treefrog is a small frog that whistles like a bird, and she spent field seasons counting it with numbered tags in swamps around Shawnee National Forest. Her stated reason for making a film about it was that people should know the species and its habitat both need help.
Why OGSP Recommends It
One Good Story Project recommends Jessica Mohlman because she helped bring attention to a threatened species and the overlooked wetlands it depends on. As project lead for The Call of the Swamp, she took research on the bird-voiced treefrog beyond reports and fieldwork and helped turn it into a film the public could understand.
Mohlman also co-wrote a 2021 account of the team’s field season. Her belief that these habitats and species should be shared with others is clear in both the research and the documentary.
Related Resources
Key Takeaways
- Mohlman led the project behind The Call of the Swamp, which premiered on November 15, 2023.
- She co-wrote the 2021 Outdoor Illinois Journal report on the bird-voiced treefrog field season.
- That season used a capture-mark-recapture method with uniquely numbered transponder tags.
- Her printed title at the time of the premiere was Research Coordinator and Assistant Scientist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Jessica Mohlman?
A wildlife ecologist who ran the treefrog fieldwork in southern Illinois and was the project lead on the 2023 film about it.
What did Jessica Mohlman research?
The bird-voiced treefrog, a state-threatened amphibian that lives only in swamps. She counted it across ten sites in and around Shawnee National Forest.
How were the bird-voiced treefrogs counted?
Interns set fifty passive pipe traps on trees at each of ten swamp sites, five hundred traps in all, and checked them weekly for four weeks. Each frog got a uniquely numbered transponder tag.
Why did Jessica Mohlman want a film made about the treefrog?
In her own words, we want people to know that this state-threatened species and internationally important habitat exist and that they both need our help.