Beyond Big Night Life lessons from amphibian road crossings by A bby Mnookin N ot e : The first portion of this piece originally aired as a Vermont Public Radio commentary on April 18, 2018.
It was a wet spring evening when my six-year-old and I set out to help salamanders and frogs cross the road a few miles from our Brattleboro home. With temperatures hovering in the upper 30s amidst steady rain, it was perfect early spring weather for the annual amphibian migration known as Big Night, when adult salamanders and frogs crawl out of their burrowing
winter habitat and return to their watery birthplaces to breed. And because roads often come between their winter habitat and these wetland breeding grounds, salamander “crossing guards” like us are needed to move them safely across the road. I’d located this amphibian road crossing through a website run by Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center, or BEEC. I’d participated in several crossings during my years as a biology teacher, but this was my daughter’s first one, and we were both giddy with excitement. Arriving shortly after dusk with headlamps and reflector vests, we were soon joined by nearly ten other people — the unofficial “site coordinator,” who’d been recording data at this location for years, a local BEEC staffer, and a family spanning three generations. Amphibians were out in even greater numbers. In just two hours, our group crossed several hundred, including spring peepers, wood frogs, yellowspotted, and four-toed salamanders. First, my child moistened her hands as she’d learned at BEEC camp. Then, handling the amphibians with gentle excitement (mostly), she carried them safely to the other side of the road.
