The period from mid-March to mid-April is critical for the lifecycle of most amphibians. Many species of salamanders and ...

Puddle or vernal pool? Take a closer look to find out. Vernal pools, Michigan’s fantastical temporary wetlands, are teeming with life. They’ve earned the nickname, “powerhouse puddles” from the state ...

Michigan vernal pools shelter salamanders, fairy shrimp and frogs. Learn why these seasonal wetlands matter and how to help ...

A walk in any deciduous forest in early March is certain to reveal a variety of vernal pools. Every depression, large and small, fills with snow melt and rain. At night these pools become hubs of ...

April showers bring May flowers. April showers also make frogs explode into a chorus after spring rain. These frogs are not simply croaking for communication. The loudest frogs are signaling that ...

One of my favorite memories was when we first moved to Maine, over 30 years ago, and discovered vernal pools (our house was surrounded by them). Vernal pools are seasonal forested wetlands that fill ...

On a spring hike in the woods, one sure way to amaze a child (or a grownup!) is to discover a red eft along the trail. Glowing red-orange in the leaf litter, these tiny creatures light up the forest ...

BRIDPORT — On the hunt for a set of GPS coordinates, biologists from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies ambled up an untrailed slope of Addison County’s Snake Mountain in late April. After climbing ...

SOUTHWICK — Vernal pools serve as important incubators for the reproduction of a variety of amphibians and because this is the time of year they spring to life, Conservation Commission Coordinator ...

SAN DIEGO — On the west end of San Diego Miramar College campus is a small Vernal pool preserve. "These are one of the Vernal pools and over here we have a funky little snail. Wow that's cool, and ...

Around these parts, they’re called wicked big puddles. Don’t let the name fool you, though. While vernal pools are really fun to explore, and you can see things there that you won’t find anywhere else ...

From a distance, a vernal pool doesn’t look like much: Just a shallow, murky pond, sometimes no bigger than a bedroom, with soggy edges surrounded by the still-brown woods of early Michigan springtime ...