“…a spring refrain…a salamander rain!” —from “Salamander Song,” written by Ginny Neil
Ginny Neil
Most people would tell you that spring sounds like robins singing. At my house, in the warming sun, it sounds like coffee percolating. That’s because as the icy puddles melt, the water sinks underground and displaces air trapped between the clay particles. The air being pushed to the surface rises as small bubbles which pop-pop-pop as they burst.
Spotted salamanders in the woods above my house and in the mountains around it are experiencing melting ice in a different way. It is nudging them to rise from their burrows and dig their way out from under the forest duff. There’s a long journey in front of them.
Ginny Neil
On the day of the first spring rain, I pull on boots and go for a quick stomp and splash. The spotted salamanders are also ready for a splash. Vernal pools are filling. These temporary ponds won’t last through the summer, but this makes them the ideal place for salamanders to meet up and mate. A pond that dries up is no place for fish. A pond with no fish is the perfect place for amphibians that don’t want their eggs or hatchlings to become fish food.
I walk across the road to check out the small vernal pool in the north forty of our property. The world is shiny with promise. The pond which was dry last fall is full. There are no salamanders, but it’s possible that on the next rainy night they will gather in large groups and start their journey out of the forest and over to the pond. Salamanders travel in the dark to avoid predators. In many places they must cross a road or two. These small black and yellow amphibians are invisible to
Ginny Neil
cars.
Why do salamanders cross the road? To get to the vernal pools on the other side. Salamanders almost always return to their hatching pool. When a road gets built between them and their original nursery, there is nothing to do but cross it.
Many places are now hosting events called “Salamander Big Nights” where local people gather on the night of the first warm spring rain and set up spotted salamander brigades. They are there to help stop traffic and move the salamanders and other similarly minded amphibians like wood frogs and spring peepers safely to the other side of the road. Because salamanders tend to follow the same route every year, once a crossing spot has been identified, it can be watched and protected every spring.
The salamanders have no need to cross a road to get to my vernal pool. It is tucked near a stand of pines and alder bushes on a plot of land below a mountain and beside a river. The biggest hazard is getting across a landscape that also includes cattle and sheep.
When I visit the pool the following week, I see some Eastern newts crawling in the leaf litter at the bottom and caddisfly larvae poking their heads out of newly made alder cone homes. The ecosystem is healthy. Now I just need to hope that spotted salamanders will come.
I didn’t know about the importance of vernal pools until I took a field trip with a herpetologist last spring. We visited five sites. Some were healthy. Some were heartbreakingly dry with withered egg masses strung out like discarded plastic trash bags across their once-wet bottoms. There are so many things that can interrupt the salamander’s successful mating.
Ginny Neil
Climate patterns are changing. Vernal pools are filling earlier and drying up before amphibian eggs can hatch. Construction is destroying habitats that salamanders have historically used for nurseries. Roads and neighborhoods are being built in the middle of their migratory pathways.
Baba Dioum, a Senegalese forestry engineer who was intent on finding ways to manage development for natural resource protections, said, “In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand.”
The natural world is full of wonders that are invisible to us because we don’t know that they are there. I have discovered that the more I see, the more I want to see and the more I want to know. Seeing is the beginning of understanding.
Spring Into Action
The Appalachian Mountains are a hotspot for salamanders and other herps. If you are interested in learning more, check out virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com.
Report seeing amphibians or reptiles on roads in Virginia at inaturalist.org/projects/virginia-reptiles-and-amphibians-on-roads.
If you want to start your own crossing brigade, YouTube has some great training videos. You can find them with titles like “Big Night Training” or “Salamander Crossing Brigades.”
The story above first appeared in our March / April 2026 issue. For more like it subscribe today or log in with your active BRC+ Membership. Thank you for your support!