- Details
- Category: Past Issues
Volunteers sought
to survey vernal pools
Ah…sweet harbingers of spring…the high-pitched chorus of peepers and the quacking call of wood frogs.
Once again, spring will find the Connecticut Audubon Society Citizen Science volunteers walking roads and hiking forests listening for frogs congregating at vernal pools. The first few warm, rainy nights will bring a parade of spotted salamanders risking exposure to predators and traffic as they, also, make their way to their breeding pools. Vernal pools are small, temporary bodies of water that are critical breeding habitat for many amphibian neighbors which need our protection. This spring marks the third season of the Vernal Pool Project as part of the Canterbury Citizen Science Volunteer Monitoring Program, a partnership between the Connecticut Audubon Society Center at Pomfret, the Canterbury Public Library, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Volunteers are also need for vernal pool monitoring in n Pomfret and Woodstock..
Vernal pool data is important to local wetlands and conservation agencies that make land use decisions.
Paula Coughlin, Citizen Science Coordinator, will teach volunteers to recognize vernal pool amphibians and their egg masses. Training is simple and easy. Register for one of the two morning sessions to be held at the Connecticut Audubon Society Center at Pomfret, Route 169, in Pomfret. Once trained, volunteers help with field work on Friday and Saturdays in April and May.
Volunteer Training Sessions will be held from 9 a.m. to noon April 2 and April 8. The fee is $7 for CAS members and $15 for nonmembers. Canterbury resident’s fee covered by USFWS grant. Please call to register or to report the location of a vernal pool: 860-928-4948.