After a winter of indoor activities, this is a great time of year to get outside and explore the local woods, especially if you are interested in the lives of amphibians.The snow is melting and vernal pools are appearing all over the Hilltowns. Frogs and salamanders are still in the woods, thawing out from their winter spent frozen under the snow. They are waiting for the first warm, rainy night of Spring to tell them it’s time to move to their breeding habitat, the vernal pools.Unfortunately, this first activity of Spring often requires crossing roads where most drivers are completely unaware they even exist. This recipe for disaster results in millions of deaths every year, with so many of them completely preventable. To follow is a look at what vernal pools are and how your family can help participate in protecting the amphibians that migrate from the every year.
WHAT IS A VERNAL POOL
A vernal pool is body of water found in upland hardwood forests in places that were previously glaciated (Ten thousand years ago these Hilltowns were covered up to 2 miles deep in ice!). In summer and fall, vernal pools appear simply as depressions in the forest floor, some as diffrent sized puddle, others as large as a couple of acres. But in the late winter, due to snow melt, spring rains and a high water table beneath them, they fill up like ponds and maintain their water generally into summer. The key feature about their formation is that since they are not associated with any running water system and because they dry out periodically, they cannot support fish. Hence, they have become a safe habitat for a variety of wildlife species that rely on these pools for breeding.
Follow a year in the life of a vernal pool in the Sawmill Hills of Florence, Massachusetts in this four minute video produced by The Northampton Wildlife Committee and Seven Generations Productions.
Here are some hikes and workshops planned for April:
Saturday - 04/12/08
10am & 11:30am - VERNAL POOLS: REFUGE FOR WILDLIFE - (Northampton) Broad Brook Coalition (BBC) will sponsor Heather Ruel from the US Fish and Wildlife Services-Div. of Reality. 10am at the Forbes Library, Northampton and then at 11:30am at the Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area (FLCA) N. Farms Road entrance. Heather will start this program with a short visual presentation on vernal pools and the certification program in MA, and then we will meet at FLCA for a walk to our vernal pools. Attend both or either segments. Vernal pools are temporary wetlands that provide critical habitat for invertebrates, reptiles, and amphibians such as spotted salamanders, wood frogs, fairy shrimp and spring peepers who are probably best known for their sharp peeping calls heard in chorus from wetlands in early spring. These habitats and their upland forests are essential for the survival of many of these species. For more information on Broad Brook Coalition, visit their website www.broadbrookcoalition.org.
Sunday - 04/13/08
1pm-3pm - ECOSYSTEM HIKE - (Northampton) The Broad Brook Coalition (BBC),Valley Land Fund (VLF), Northampton Wildlife Committee will be sponsoring Mike Wojtech, Timothy Brown, and John Body at the Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area (FLCA) N. Farms Road entrance. It’s all about Habitat! Mike, Timothy, and John will welcome the spring with a hike to explore some of the habitats at the FLCA. Forest ecosystems, vernal pools, lake, and old orchard systems will be explored. Hopefully there will be time to get out to Cooke’s Pasture, our restored and managed shrub land that is the focus of much effort on the part of the management team of the BBC. For more information on Valley Land Fund, visit their website at www.valleylandfund.org.
Sunday - 04/20/08
1pm-3pm - EARTH DAY HIKE INTO THE SAWMILL HILLS - (Florence) Northampton Wildlife Committee and Nonotuck Land Fund sponsors: Come celebrate Earth Day with the Wildlife Committee and Nonotuck as we check the three substantial vernal pools and do some trail maintenance along the way. We’ll get to see lots of vernal pool activity and maybe the Pileated Woodpeckers will make an appearance! Meet at the parking lot behind the Arts and Industries Building on Pine Street and we’ll carpool up to the Avis Circle Trailhead.
Saturday - 04/26/08
10am-Noon - VERNAL POOL CERTIFICATION - (Easthampton) Mass Audubon at Arcadia Sanctuary hosts Nancy Childs, naturalist and Arcadia Nursery School lead teacher will be walking people through the steps of certifying a vernal pool. You will learn how to identify a pool with obligate species and vegetation, do the required mapping and documentation, and process the forms to have a vernal pool certified by the state. This certification brings added protections to the pool. Call the Sanctuary for more details and registeration, 584-3009. For more hikes and workshops at Arcadia, check out their website at: www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/Sanctuaries/Arcadia/index.php ($)
A big thank you to >GRENDEL BOOKS, ABAA/ILAB for sponsoring our weekly promotional giveaways. Grendel Books, ABAA/ILAB is based out of the hilltowns of Western Mass and is an on-line out-of-print and rare book store selling quality books for over 20 years. www.GrendelBooks.com
Hilltown Families welcomes individuals and businesses to become a sponsor. Click here to inquire how you can support the work of Hilltown Families by becoming a sponsor. There are many different ways, both large and small, for you to support the work of Hilltown Families.
(c) 2006-2008 Hilltown Families, Sienna Wildfield, unless otherwise indicated. Reprint permission inquires may be sent to swildfield@juno.com or the corresponding author.
After a winter of indoor activities, this is a great time of year to get outside and explore the local woods, especially if you are interested in the lives of amphibians. The snow is melting and vernal pools are appearing all over the Hilltowns. Frogs and salamanders are still in the woods, thawing out from their winter spent frozen under the snow. They are waiting for the first warm, rainy night of Spring to tell them it’s time to move to their breeding habitat, the vernal pools. Unfortunately, this first activity of Spring often requires crossing roads where most drivers are completely unaware they even exist. This recipe for disaster results in millions of deaths every year, with so many of them completely preventable. To follow is a look at what vernal pools are and how your family can help participate in protecting the amphibians that migrate from the every year.
