Salamander School

There they were, in the dimness of an early spring morning, making their way with determination, some over long distances, from their solitary existence for most of the previous year, to this gathering place.
For just one day—to join with others of their kind.

No, not the salamanders…yet.
The pond watchers—those individuals, the citizen scientist, who will monitor vernal pools in the many counties within Ohio, identifying the creatures found within and documenting their locations.
The workshop at Stratford Ecological Center, an opportunity to learn from the experts and share findings with other watchers, before heading home for another year’s observations.

Touring the pools at Stratford

Why?
Because the percentage of wetlands lost to development and drainage in the state of Ohio ranks second only to that in California.
And the first step in preservation is an appreciation of value.


So, until that balmy spring night , ears ringing with the calls of peepers and wood frogs, feet muddied by the soft earth releasing them,
I will study my training materials carefully.

Cool stuff to read and listen to

And wait to greet them upon their return.

Do you recognize that smiling face on the cover of their brochure?
And the salamander on the Ohio Environmental Council's website?

He's my guy!!

Empty

I stand at the edge of Little Pond pool, its green, grassy basin rimmed with field flowers reaching beyond my waist. It was in this very spot that I found him last spring, my first spotted salamander, climbing over the berm to re-enter the water of his birth, and the study of my vernal pool began.

The emptiness seems a loss now, for the thousands of lives that gathered here or hatched from the egg masses, have gone. Most, moving out into the fields and woods on newly sprouted legs. The last remaining few, picked up by a solitary sandpiper—watching the vanishing water as I, slipping like sand through an hourglass.

It is this emptiness that is its essence.

February 2008

May 2008

July 2008

August 15, 2008

Autumn rains will fill the basin once more.
The pool will wait for spring.
And on a warm, rainy night in March, we will both return.

Spotted Salamander in Little Pond pool
March 2008

Vernal pools are wetlands that become dry for periods of the year, and, for that reason, cannot contain fish. Certain amphibians must use these waters for breeding so their eggs will not be eaten.
Destruction of vernal pools by draining or fill, disrupts the life cycle of Wood Frogs and several salamander species, including the Spotted and Jefferson. Each spring, these interesting animals cover great distances to return to the pools of their birth and breed again, only to find them gone.
Many states have begun vernal pool monitoring programs to ensure the health of these very important ecological areas.

View more ABC Wednesdays here!

Focused

Every day begins with a walk to the pool.
What started several weeks ago as a mild interest in understanding more of the ecology of this small seasonal basin, has become much more.
There is life here now.

And although it is very clear that animals that reproduce in these numbers, do so for a reason--I'd like to think these will survive, beyond the 10 percent of most.

There are no fish here. Nothing larger, in fact, than the wood frogs that left the bluish gray masses, before returning to the wet, leafy floor beneath the surrounding trees. But every morning I see footprints.
I know that I am not the only one watching.




The Jefferson salamanders drawn here with the first warm rain, have also gone. Beneath the snow-covered pool, they waited. Their eggs, on the long submerged grasses, now all I can see.



Tomorrow morning will be rainy again.
At the edge of the pool, I will be watching.

From the Black Lagoon...

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!

The GBBC--more than just a number

There’s a little chickadee I look for every morning—identifiable by his bright white tail.
And, although he’s just one of a million others of his kind, he’s the one I’m able to recognize as he flits through our woods to visit the feeders.
He’s the one I miss, when he’s not here.


I wonder about the billions and trillions (?) of living things categorized into neat groups we casually call “bugs” or “frogs” or “birds.” And the many people who never think of them as being more distinct than that—never learn to recognize each for their differences.
Never seeing more than the group.
A frog is simply a frog.
Nothing more.

It’s easier to walk past, not knowing their name.
And not care.

The Great Backyard Bird Count, GBBC, is next weekend. And though it is promoted as “citizen science,” a way for regular people to contribute to research efforts, it’s more than that.
It’s an exercise in seeing beyond the group.
Taking apart the word, “bird,” and being specific about each we see.
Giving each a name.

For with a name, comes significance.
And with understanding, comes care.