By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
Appearing in most woodland areas after a winter thaw and spring rains, vernal pools offer a safe haven for many amphibians and insects to develop into their life cycles away from natural water-born predators such as fish. On Saturday Crawford Park District Naturalist Josh Dyer led a program into Carmean Woods to explore a vernal pool in Crawford County.
Dyer spoke to the visitors about the ethics of not splashing and stomping in the vernal pool due to it being the animals’ habitat. Dyer, along with all of the attendees, took a short hike up Mt. Zion Road to Carmean Woods to explore the biodiversity of the vernal pool.
Dyer spoke about the importance of vernal pools.
“The vernal pools, they dot Crawford County, and just about every wood lot that is left in Crawford County has a vernal or a femoral pool within it,” Dyer said. “They are just a wealth of biodiversity that you just don’t see often in Crawford County.
“You might have to trudge across a field, you might have to trudge down a road to get to these places, but the biodiversity that lives within these vernal pools is just incredible,” Dyer continued. “When we lose them by taking down wood lots through runoff and siltation it is a mark on the landscape that we won’t get back, because the animals they call these places home, and when you take away their home they won’t come back. They are very vital habitats across Crawford County’s landscape.”
As both kids and adults explored the wetland, soon specimens began trickling back to containers at the water’s edge for closer inspection. The first specimen brought back was a wood frog egg mass. Soon more and more animals were brought to the water’s edge including three small mouth salamanders, two crawfish, a few water scavenger beetles, wood frogs, spring peepers, and chorus frogs. After the exploration of the vernal pool, the creatures were returned to their natural habitat.
Dyer spoke about the animals found in the pool, and why some outnumbered the others.
“Given the sporadic nature of the spring this year from spring coming early back in mid-February then three weeks later a freeze up, things are still looking pretty good out there,” Dyer said. “There weren’t as many egg masses as I thought there might be, so that tells me that maybe all of the salamanders weren’t there yet. So with the trickling of the rainfall, well then you will get a trickling of the migration of the amphibians that will call this place home.
“There were a lot of wood frogs so we must have got here at the peak of wood frog migration, I would say we get a really nice rainfall, and the wood frogs will really be cranking up and depositing a lot of eggs,” Dyer said.
Prior to heading out of the vernal pools, Dyer showed other examples of animals that could call vernal pools home. During this portion of the program tiger salamanders, spotted salamanders and a red back salamander were displayed. These animals weren’t released however as they are used by the Crawford Park District for educational purposes during programs such as Saturday’s vernal pool program.
Kerri Pope explained why she brought her children Lexi and Kellen to the vernal pool program.
“We like to go to everything that the Crawford County Parks do, because without Josh doing the things he does I probably wouldn’t get a chance to pick up the salamanders and the bugs and stuff, and that also give my kids a chance to learn,” Kerri said “There is no better learning than out in nature.”
Lexi spoke about her favorite animals that she got to see at the vernal pool program.
“I enjoyed touching the animals,” Lexi explained. “I liked the salamanders most.”
Bringing his granddaughter Madi Shade up from Fredricktown after reading about the program on the Crawford Park District’s website, Jim Bostil reflected on why they attended the vernal pool program.
“It was something new for the granddaughter, she likes to get out on things with nature,” Bostil said. “We have done a lot of things together, and thought it would be fun.”
Shade spoke about her experiences at the program
“I liked finding different animals, and I didn’t even know there was something called a vernal pool,” Shade said. “I liked the tiger salamanders the most because I like tigers.”
While walking back to the parking lot one more animal made an appearance as a garter snake was discovered along the way. After a short viewing of the animal it, too, was released to continue along with its day.
PHOTO GALLERY: Crawford Park District vernal pool program