When Vermont’s ice and snow melts this spring, the runoff will create thousands of temporary wetlands. Frogs and salamanders will seek out those vernal pools to lay their eggs. But some scientists are worried climate change may cause vernal pools to dry up faster, putting those species at risk.
The Vermont Center for Ecostudies is training volunteers to monitor vernal pools this spring.
"And its main goal is to use the power of citizen science to basically establish an essential baseline of data on vernal pools across the state," said Alex Wells, who is coordinating the project. "And with that baseline we can see how they change over the course of the next few years. Or the next ten years, hopefully, twenty years."
"If, with climate change, the vernal pools start to dry up a lot earlier then we’ll have an idea that that’s happening and we can take action," Wells added. "We can make policy to, maybe, help vernal pools and help the species that exist in them."
Beginning this week, Wells is holding a series of trainings around the state for volunteer vernal pool monitors, including in Burlington, Middlebury, Norwich, Brattleboro, Marlboro, Montpelier and Charleston. For information on a training near you, click here.
