NEW HAVEN, Vt. — 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.
Human escorts 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.”
On a recent night, University of Vermont student Kaitlin Friedman walked with other volunteers along the asphalt with flashlights and clipboards, moving wood frogs, peepers, blue-spotted, red-backed and four-toed salamanders across the road, while jotting down how many they saw.
Vermont is considering installing tunnels under the road for amphibians and other animals to use. The town has received a $25,000 grant to pay for the engineering. The full project could cost up to $350,000, said Steve Parren, who works for the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department.
Similar tunnels were installed in Amherst, Mass., in 1987, and have proved 70 to 80 percent effective, said Scott Jackson, a wildlife biologist at the University of Massachusetts.
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