Big Night comes once, sometimes twice, each spring, or can occur as several medium or smaller nights. It's the magical moment when the ground is thawed and the temperature and humidity are just right. In these exact conditions spotted salamanders, wood frogs, and other amphibians migrate from wherever they wintered to nearby vernal pools and wetlands where they will breed. This often happens in April but could occur in later March or early May. When their migration involves crossing a road from uplands to wetlands and vernal pools, we can help them cross safely!
Chocorua Lake Conservancy and Green Mountain Conservation Group are assembling a team for a Big Night Amphibian Crossing Brigade and data collection in the Chocorua Lake Basin. If you would like to be part of this citizen science project, please fill out a simple registration form below. Space permitting, we will email you when the time looks right to see if you are able to join us and to give you directions and details about what to bring.
We encourage you to attend one of two trainings:
Thursday, March 13, 7–8:30 PM, via Zoom: Salamander Crossing Brigade Volunteer Training with the Harris Center for Conservation Education. You can register at harriscenter.org. (You can also watch their 2024 training.) The Harris Center, while in a different part of the State so that their Brigade timing might be different, is a fabulous resource for Big Night information.
Thursday, March 20, 7–8 PM, in person: It's Raining Frogs & Toads! Big Night Info Session, with our friends up the road at Tin Mountain Conservation Center. Register at tinmountain.org. They will cover likely species we'll see in this region and safety considerations for both humans and amphibians, and they encourage us to attend and then monitor crossings near our homes so that we aren't driving long distances on a night when amphibians are on the move. If you live near Tin Mountain, you can sign up for the TNCC crossing brigade and avoid driving so far on a night of crossings.
(If you would like to bring a child with you to Big Night, we ask that you please attend a training to learn how to keep people of all ages safe during the Brigade. All children must be accompanied by an adult.)
About the Presenters:
Tara Schroeder worked as GMCG’s Program Director from 2003-2011, and was responsible for overseeing water quality monitoring, educational programs, volunteer training, and all day-to-day aspects of growing the organization. She initiated and continues to lead watershed education programs in local schools, such as the Volunteer Biological Assessment Program, Trout in the Classroom, GET WET! drinking water education program, and Less Plastic Initiative. She worked as a teacher, workshop leader, volunteer coordinator, and group outreach coordinator for the Appalachian Mountain Club, as a teacher for Nature’s Classroom, and as a trip leader and camp director at Camp Cody. Tara returned to GMCG as Education Coordinator in 2018, and has since developed place-based nature programs at the organization’s conservation center, Blue Heron House, and expanded watershed education programs in local schools. She holds a BA from Bowdoin College in Anthropology and Environmental Studies with a minor in Biology, and her MS in Environmental Education from Lesley University/Audubon Expedition Institute.
CLC Stewardship Director Debra Marnich holds a BS in Zoology and an MS in Forestry. Her major interests and professional focus areas include combining wildlife and forestry practices to manage for both sound silvicultural and optimum wildlife habitat, creating early successional and bird nesting habitat, pollinator habitat creation, promoting small diverse farms local food production/agriculture, promoting land conservation and protection, environmental education, and integrating all resources concerns to create a balanced conservation system.
Banner image from the Big Night crankie!