It’s VP time, people.
You guessed it- Vernal Pool. As you know from last year, gregorific is an avid fan of the wetland. I became involved in efforts to protect my community wetlands in an unusual way. I heard a rumor.
It was a rumor that an endangered tree frog was preventing future construction near my home. I was intrigued. I wanted to thank this frog. Maybe show my kids what it looks like.
I asked around. The rumor got fuzzy and then outrageous and then…Debunked. The rumor was false, ya’ll. No tree frog. No halt to development. I guess people had been reading The Lorax and got carried away. But I did track down the source, like the intrepid journalist I am.
It was a rumor that an endangered tree frog was preventing future construction near my home. I was intrigued. I wanted to thank this frog. Maybe show my kids what it looks like.
I asked around. The rumor got fuzzy and then outrageous and then…Debunked. The rumor was false, ya’ll. No tree frog. No halt to development. I guess people had been reading The Lorax and got carried away. But I did track down the source, like the intrepid journalist I am.
Environmentalists were searching for a spadefoot toad that was said to live in the local wetlands. If they could find evidence of the toad, then development of that land would be limited, in order to protect the endangered toad’s habitat.
No one could find any toad. There was talk of taking samples of wetland water and analyzing it for spadefoot toad DNA. Naturalists were desperate to find a concrete way to protect the local vernal pools. They were grasping at straws spadefoot DNA.
Aside: Vernal Pools are seasonal wetlands created by spring rains. Amphibians come out of hibernation from the surrounding duff and migrate to the pools to breed. After breeding, they disperse. The pools dry up. Next year, spring rains cue the cycle again.
No one could find any toad. There was talk of taking samples of wetland water and analyzing it for spadefoot toad DNA. Naturalists were desperate to find a concrete way to protect the local vernal pools. They were grasping at straws spadefoot DNA.
Aside: Vernal Pools are seasonal wetlands created by spring rains. Amphibians come out of hibernation from the surrounding duff and migrate to the pools to breed. After breeding, they disperse. The pools dry up. Next year, spring rains cue the cycle again.
Once I became aware that 13 vernal pools were a stone’s throw away from my home, I got what you would call attached.
Registered wetlands are federally protected. But, this protection, when followed to the letter of the law, only extends to the edges of the actual pool-- not the surrounding area. Common sense tells us that an ecosystem is not one part- it is a complex system. This is especially true of vernal pools.
The dynamic nature of seasonal change keeps the shape of the pools and the surrounding habitat in flux.
Registered wetlands are federally protected. But, this protection, when followed to the letter of the law, only extends to the edges of the actual pool-- not the surrounding area. Common sense tells us that an ecosystem is not one part- it is a complex system. This is especially true of vernal pools.
The dynamic nature of seasonal change keeps the shape of the pools and the surrounding habitat in flux.
Back to the 13 vernal pools near me and their precarious fate. My town requires any development to keep some green space. Conveniently, the vernal pool land was designated as the green space. Please note that they couldn’t have built there anyway. Instead of having a distinct green space, they overlapped the green space requirement with the federally protected land. Now they want to build a park on the green space.
A park in the traditional sense would ruin the wetlands. Sure, they can’t build a playground on a vernal pool. But they can on the rise surrounding the vernal pool. This would displace and destroy many of the species that the wetland supports, and that support the wetland. It’s a system. Disable one part and the system collapses. Dude, not cool.
A park in the traditional sense would ruin the wetlands. Sure, they can’t build a playground on a vernal pool. But they can on the rise surrounding the vernal pool. This would displace and destroy many of the species that the wetland supports, and that support the wetland. It’s a system. Disable one part and the system collapses. Dude, not cool.
So I advocate for a park that embraces the natural resources and upholds the intent of the law protecting the wetlands. I suggest a nature path. Maybe portable observation decks. Bird watching stations. Educational placards. Why not make it a learning laboratory?
I am not alone in this vision. Local environmental non profits are working hard to educate the community about their choices. A consulting firm has been hired by the town to make sure the park will meet the neighborhood and townships’ needs. This is all good.
Now it’s my turn to help raise awareness of what this land is.
I am not alone in this vision. Local environmental non profits are working hard to educate the community about their choices. A consulting firm has been hired by the town to make sure the park will meet the neighborhood and townships’ needs. This is all good.
Now it’s my turn to help raise awareness of what this land is.
It’s a gem. A treasure to be protected. We need to speak for the bulrush, the spadefoot toads, the Jeffersonian salamanders, the spring peepers. Our collective efforts can responsibly steward our neighborhoods so that our children still have space to call green.
What endangered species live near you? Do they need your help?
The challenge is yours,
~gregorific
What endangered species live near you? Do they need your help?
The challenge is yours,
~gregorific
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