Meet Your Neighbors

Beth and Jim Harris:
Making Frogs Famous

Jim Harris focuses the camera. Beth, his wife, adjusts the lights. In waist-deep water, they move quietly, hoping their presence won’t ruin the shot. In the spotlight sits a chorus frog, staring up at the moon. It puffs up its throat and begins to call, adding its voice to the springtime choir. Then, for a moment, the pond grows silent. Like a finger against the teeth of a comb, its voice suddenly echoes alone. Jim and Beth smile at each other. They finally have their shot.

This late-night scene became one of many great close-ups in the 2004 independent educational video, Frogs of Illinois (Volume 1: Northern Illinois). In the film, Jim and Beth Harris capture the beauty of the native amphibians that live near their country home in St. Anne, Illinois, in Kankakee County. Behind their home, ten acres of restored native prairie and a three-quarter-acre pond put the perfect filming location at their fingertips.

The Harrises, both computer consultants by day, created this video out of concern that kids today are only familiar with the “cool,” exotic animals that they see on television. Unlike Africa or Australia, Illinois has no dangerous lions or reptiles that can be wrestled, so kids don’t get very much exposure to the incredible native biodiversity that surrounds them. “I’m trying to encourage kids to notice what’s around them,” explains Jim, “and hopefully even to protect and save it.”

“If we can personalize some of the disappearing habitats and the animals that live there, then we can communicate their value to other people, especially kids,” Beth agrees.

This communication began as a video dialogue between the Harrises and their nieces and nephews. When the kids came to visit from nearby Bourbonnais, Jim would walk them through the prairie and other wild spots, trying to capture new, interesting species on video. When the kids were away, he would often film things that he thought they would enjoy when they came back.

After seeing how well their relatives responded to those videos, Jim and Beth decided to do something more with their hobby. Over the next three years, the Harrises shot hours of video, edited clips, dubbed narration, and wrote music. The end product was a fun, educational video featuring chorus, wood, leopard, and tree frogs, spring peepers, and more. All species but wood and cricket frogs were shot on their property. Indeed, theirs is one of the few places that can boast of having both plains and leopard frogs, as well as both American and Fowler’s toads. (All these species’ ranges rarely overlap.)

The video’s narration was geared towards young children, but the video’s intimate and cinematic images allow any audience to see frogs in ways that normally require crouching for hours in hip waders. The couple made it a priority to show and describe the markings of each species as well as their calls, so that the video would help amateurs identify frogs.

When it came time to put the movie on DVDs, the Harrises looked for assistance from state and local organizations, but had no luck. At that point, they bit the bullet and paid for 1,000 professional copies by themselves. They sent their video to grade-school teachers and environmental groups across the state, but still wish they had been able to do more. Jim says he’s holding out hope that an interested organization with some extra cash will see the video and help them get it into schools all across the state.

Yet, with or without additional funding, the Harrises plan to continue making videos. Based on survey responses from students, Jim and Beth think they’ll soon be delving into the insect world, filming dragonflies or butterflies for their next project. Until then, they plan to further restore their backyard prairie as a haven for local species that have few places left to go. And every spring, as these animals climb out of the ponds and fly out of the trees, the Harrises will be there with their camera and lights, waiting to catch
the perfect shot.

— Tegan Jones

To order Frogs of Illinois, call (815) 427-9844.