Saving our Salamanders - Come Thursday and Learn Why

For 8 years,the East Brunswick Environmental Commission and the Friends along with the Town Administration, Public Works and the Police have been working to protect the last populations of spotted salamanders in town. Each year in late winter or early spring we close down Beekman Road on rainy, raw nights to allow spotted salamanders and frogs and an occasional newt to safely cross to their breeding vernal pools. These migrations occur at night and are triggered by the first few rainy days in February or March (or sometimes even April) when temperatures are typically at least in the 40's. On these wet nights, large numbers of spotted salamanders and frogs make their way to the vernal pools that are on the north side of Beekman Road.

Vernal pools are small shallow woodland ponds that dry up in the summer and then fill up with water in the winter or spring. Vernal pools are critically important as breeding habitats for many woodland amphibians. Fortunately through the efforts of East Brunswick and Middlesex County the vernal pools now occur on permanently protected open space.

When spotted salamanders and frogs aren't in the vernal pools mating or laying eggs or maturing into little salamanders and frogs, they spend the rest of their time in the adjacent woods. Unfortunately Beekman Road splits some of the woods from the vernal pools and in order for the salamanders and frogs to get to them, they need to cross the road. This puts them in great danger from cars. Before we began the road closings, Beekman Road was literally a slaughter zone with huge numbers of salamanders and frogs being crushed by cars. Through the road closings we have cut road mortality down to nearly zero and believe that this has helped the populations significantly rebound. Since a single female spotted salamander can carry hundreds of eggs, each one that was lost on the road was a huge dent in the future of the population, a trend we have think we have reversed. 

Our efforts at protecting our salamanders have won numerous awards and received vast local, state, and even national and international media coverage. More importantly the migrations have been a harbinger of spring and a wonderful annual event shared by many town residents. We hope you will come out one night this spring to experience one of the most incredible natural events in East Brunswick. Once you see a 6 inch spotted salamander making its way across Beekman Road, we are certain it will be unforgettable.    

Come learn all about our fascinating vernal pools and the efforts to protect them on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. at the . The free talk will be given by Dave Moskowitz, President of the Friends and the driving force behind starting the Amphibian Protection Plan. The talk features lots of cool photos and the calls of some of our common frogs that breed in our vernal pools. 

Join the Friends, its always Free and so are our programs. It only takes a few seconds on the website at www.friendsebec.com