Volunteers help salamanders avoid roadway massacre
NEW HAVEN, Vt. (AP) – The black salamander with yellow spots sat on the roadside in the dark, ready to make a go of it.
But it was not on its own. It got help from an escort – one of 45 people who volunteered on a recent night to carry salamanders, frogs and newts across the road during their annual migration to mate.
On rainy nights in early spring, roads between forests and vernal pools are hopping and crawling with activity. On some nights, hundreds of amphibians cross small stretches of asphalt to mate. But many don’t make it.
From rural Vermont to urban centers like Philadelphia, human escorts, called bucket brigades in some places, help amphibians make it to their mating areas without getting squashed by cars. It’s part education, part conservation, and part science.
“It’s an extraordinary thing and people deserve to know about it,” said Warren King, a member of the Otter Creek Audubon Society, who organizes a crossing in Salisbury. “And it needs to be protected. There are sites where many of the critters that are crossing never make it.”