Jul 29, 2026 · 1 hr 16 min · 15 segments
In this video Aaron of Woods a Forest Media (@WoodsandForestsMedia ) joins me to talk about Frog Week 2026, community conservation, the frogs of…
So, uh, my name is Aaron Capolei, and I'm the president and founder of the nonprofit PA Woods and Forests.
Basically, we focus on ecology, looking at reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and carnivorous plants.
I also created a media brand called Woods and Forests Media, and we tell the story of what the nonprofit's doing in this project, but also I have shows that, um, educate the public about ambassador animals like American toads, gray tree frogs, Italian wall lizards.
Um, so basically the way to look at it, the nonprofit is doing the field work, the media brand is filming it for free, and, uh, we also have Josh's Frogs who's been a sponsor for eight years now for the project.
So it's kind of the big three in, in terms of right now, uh, like how we advertise and how we make Frog Week.
So it's been eight years in the making and, um, it's field work, videos, and the videos highlight from January all the way to July all the stuff we've been doing, and that's what we're here to talk about with some of the stuff you got the chance to preview early.
Yeah.
Thanks for sending that over, by the way.
So the goal of Frog Week in the beginning was to get people to care about the local frogs and toads.
As I was in my undergrad at Pitt Johnstown, uh, the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, I was focused on just trying to make an impact.
They had some, um, incredible personalities, and it just left me wanting to do more than just have them in tanks, and it pushed me in so many different directions.
But, uh, at, at first it started out just the idea of wanting to get people to care about them because I live in a salamander-dominated state and I love salamanders, but at the same time, um, I wanted to try to encourage people to look at other herps.
And snakes would be probably top two with the salamanders, which again, I understand, but, uh, it would be cool to get people excited about frogs, and I thought we need a seat at the table for conservation for frogs and toads.
Uh, there's a lot of people that didn't necessarily agree with me wholeheartedly, uh, but at the same time, that's neither here nor there because my mind, my focus was trying to create that opportunity.
If you don't see the example, a lot of times if you can, you could become the example, and that's the way that I looked at it.
But as it's evolved over time, I went to grad school at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a master's in biology, but I primarily focused on the local wildlife, the native frogs and toads primarily, and looking at their distribution and other things like that.
And it led to what I had always wanted to create, was an authoritative piece, uh, even if it was digitally, that kids in grad school, kids in their undergrad can reference, and I can feed in sources that have been from 100 years ago.
I could tell the story about an animal that's been in a few of these counties, and maybe it helps people down the road to understand the story or get interested in the story of, of where they live.
So, uh, my name is Aaron Capolei, and I'm the president and founder of the nonprofit PA Woods and Forests.
Basically, we focus on ecology, looking at reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and carnivorous plants.
I also created a media brand called Woods and Forests Media, and we tell the story of what the nonprofit's doing in this project, but also I have shows that, um, educate the public about ambassador animals like American toads, gray tree frogs, Italian wall lizards.
Um, so basically the way to look at it, the nonprofit is doing the field work, the media brand is filming it for free, and, uh, we also have Josh's Frogs who's been a sponsor for eight years now for the project.
So it's kind of the big three in, in terms of right now, uh, like how we advertise and how we make Frog Week.
So it's been eight years in the making and, um, it's field work, videos, and the videos highlight from January all the way to July all the stuff we've been doing, and that's what we're here to talk about with some of the stuff you got the chance to preview early.
Yeah.
Thanks for sending that over, by the way.
So the goal of Frog Week in the beginning was to get people to care about the local frogs and toads.
As I was in my undergrad at Pitt Johnstown, uh, the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, I was focused on just trying to make an impact.
They had some, um, incredible personalities, and it just left me wanting to do more than just have them in tanks, and it pushed me in so many different directions.
But, uh, at, at first it started out just the idea of wanting to get people to care about them because I live in a salamander-dominated state and I love salamanders, but at the same time, um, I wanted to try to encourage people to look at other herps.
And snakes would be probably top two with the salamanders, which again, I understand, but, uh, it would be cool to get people excited about frogs, and I thought we need a seat at the table for conservation for frogs and toads.
Uh, there's a lot of people that didn't necessarily agree with me wholeheartedly, uh, but at the same time, that's neither here nor there because my mind, my focus was trying to create that opportunity.
If you don't see the example, a lot of times if you can, you could become the example, and that's the way that I looked at it.
But as it's evolved over time, I went to grad school at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a master's in biology, but I primarily focused on the local wildlife, the native frogs and toads primarily, and looking at their distribution and other things like that.
And it led to what I had always wanted to create, was an authoritative piece, uh, even if it was digitally, that kids in grad school, kids in their undergrad can reference, and I can feed in sources that have been from 100 years ago.
I could tell the story about an animal that's been in a few of these counties, and maybe it helps people down the road to understand the story or get interested in the story of, of where they live.
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