There is a vernal pool beyond the field, over in the woods.
Where the morning sun filters through young maple trees, and old oaks have laid their leaves for a bed.
From the depths of this tiny, fragile world, thousands of lives will emerge.
It is a quiet place now.
The snow cover has just lifted, the silver ice melts—dimples of soft rain fill the basin to its rim.
The black water is clear and still.
Vernal pools, woodland ponds that hold water for only several months and have no fish, are important habitat for hundreds of species.
Because of destruction of woodlands and drainage of many areas, they are rapidly disappearing.
The Ohio Vernal Pool Partnership, OVPP, was founded in 2005 by The Nature Conservancy and The Ohio Environmental Council.
The monitoring program is intended to “encourage community-based conservation of vernal pools in Ohio through education, partnerships, science, and (re)discovery of our natural world.”
Over the next weeks, I will watch the lives that are transformed here.
Call it silly, but I can't wait!
Because of destruction of woodlands and drainage of many areas, they are rapidly disappearing.
The Ohio Vernal Pool Partnership, OVPP, was founded in 2005 by The Nature Conservancy and The Ohio Environmental Council.
The monitoring program is intended to “encourage community-based conservation of vernal pools in Ohio through education, partnerships, science, and (re)discovery of our natural world.”
Over the next weeks, I will watch the lives that are transformed here.
Call it silly, but I can't wait!