John Cole was one of 16 volunteers this spring who set out in search of the egg masses of salamanders and wood frogs in Scarborough, at times pushing through dense brush and wading into icy water.

What prompted the egg hunt?

Cole was assisting the Scarborough Conservation Commission in its attempt to map the town’s vernal pools – ecologically significant habitats that are protected under state law. The commission is in the middle of a three-year effort to locate the town’s vernal pools and document indications of their ecological significance. The commission is expected to release in June the results of its work this spring.

“The bottom line is I was a resident of Portland for a lot of years and there’s not a lot of land left in Portland,” said Cole, a member of the Scarborough School Board. “We’re at a pivotal point in Scarborough for development because once you develop that land, you can’t get it back.”

Using a recent map of Scarborough from the planning department, along with mapping software from Stantec that overlays the map identifying water, the Scarborough Conservation Commission identified about 150 potential vernal pools, said Bob Jordan, board member of the conservation commission and project coordinator for the study.

Vernal pools are seasonal wetlands that appear when the snow melts and typically dry up each summer. They are spawning grounds for four animal species: wood frogs, brine shrimp and two types of salamanders, Jordan said.

Since September, 2007, the state has protected the most productive vernal pools and the land around them.

The work of studying the pools has been fun, but at times difficult, Cole said.

Volunteers were assigned quadrants of Scarborough with identified vernal pools on a map. From there, they had to trek to the pools, usually through dense brush, and spend about 30 minutes studying it.

Once they arrived at the pool, they would do a rough sketch of it, identifying the pool’s surroundings, such as brush, banks or trees.

“After that was done, that’s where the fun part began,” Cole said.

Using a walking stick about 5-feet long, the volunteers poked the water identifying soft spots and drop offs before wading through the icy-cold water.

Once they were in the water, sometimes waste high, they identified any salamander or wood frog egg masses, documented them with photographs and wrote their findings in a journal.

“You have to be really careful when you are doing this,” Cole said. “One time I was ready to step into what looked like shallow water, then I stuck my walking stick into it and the stick was immediately submerged in water. If I had stepped in before identifying the depth with my stick, I would’ve sunk in over my head.”

Those elements of danger were all part of the tradeoff for what Cole said was necessary work.

“It’s a lot of fun doing this, but I hope we are making people more aware of the land and the natural habitat,” he said.

In 2007 The Scarborough Town Council appropriated $10,000 for volunteer scientific study of the town, Jordan said.

Most of that money was spent on buying aerial photos of Scarborough from Stantec, which were later used to map the 130 or so vernal pools, Jordan said.

Identifying vernal pools is critical to the town’s development, Scarborough Town Planner Dan Bacon said. If a significant vernal pool – one with four or more wood frog or salamander egg masses – is found, the property owner would need to go through a lengthy planning board review process to determine whether anything can be built on the land under state law.

“It definitely would have some affect on that process,” Bacon said.

Cole and the volunteers’ goals were to identify significant vernal pools.

Vernal pools occur in northern climates. If they are destroyed, Jordan said, the animals that spawn there could lose their breeding grounds.

“Vernal pools are one of these things that a lot of people don’t know about,” Jordan said. “We’re hoping to change that a little.”

The project began in April as volunteers mailed about 120 land owners seeking permission to study pools identified on their properties. About 60 people approved.

The volunteers also used the help of University of Maine biology professor Aram Calhoun. She conducted two training courses for the volunteers teaching them how to identify the pools.

Jordan said he expects to have a full report ready for the Town Council within the next month.

“We are trying to find significant vernal pools that need protecting,” Jordan said. “It’s important to identify them because they are important to the biomass diversity of the ecosystems.”

Cole studied several pools near his 40 Arbor View Lane home, including two located on Northern Utilities’ property just behind his house.

While walking through the woods on his way to an identified pool, Cole stumbled upon one that wasn’t on the map. He studied it for about 30 minutes and deemed it was not significant, but he was still excited to have found it.

“That happened a few times,” he said. “Sometimes the brush surrounding the pool is thick and the aerial photos can’t identify them. That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to be out here doing this work.”

Happenstance and mishaps happened often, Cole said, as he points to his GPS.

“I had to use this a lot, because you would get lost at times,” he said. “One time I was out here most of the day and my wife asked me where in the world I had been. I said, ‘lost.'”

The actual studying of the pools took about four weeks, Jordan said. Volunteers spent about 30 minutes at each pool. The best time to study was between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. because the sunlight was brightest, Jordan said.

As of this spring, 13 Maine towns, including Topsham, Freeport and Windham, have used volunteers to study vernal pools.

Jordan said the town plans to study the pools again next year, looking for spawning patterns and seeing if a significant pool this year is still a significant pool next year.

Cole said he hopes to get the process started in March rather than April to provide a more accurate study of the pools.

“Once the snow begins to melt is the time you want to really be out here,” he said. “That’s when the frogs begin laying their eggs.”

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