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Forbes
23-05-2025
- General
- Forbes
How Vermont Rallied To Save Tiny Salamanders From Becoming Roadkills
A blue-spotted salamander. Two underpasses costing $330,000 in the Lake Champlain Valley are a model effort in how a Vermont community rallied behind thousands of tiny salamanders scurrying over the road yearly to safeguard the wildlife migrations. 'If you tell somebody an eight-inch long, purple and yellow salamander will come out of the ground in the thousands every spring and they've never seen it before, most people will tell you that you're crazy. And yet, that's exactly what's happening every year,' said Jens Hilke, conservation planner at Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. A salamander in the town of Monkton pauses while crossing the road this spring in Vermont. Most amphibians in Vermont need to live in both dry lands like forests and wetlands separated by terrain for two seasonal migrations. 'Every spring, stunning numbers of frogs and salamanders migrate from their terrestrial overwintering habitats to their aquatic breeding habitats,' explained VTF&W herpetologist Luke Groff. Spotted salamander. These predictable migrations to seasonal habitats enable ecopassages to be highly effective for intercepting and guiding the creatures through safer passageways. 'There's a migratory path that has to happen seasonally. That's highly synchronous, resulting in many, many animals making that migration simultaneously. And yet those animals outside of that time of the year are extremely difficult to find. They're underground, they're not visible. They're under rocks and logs. They're dormant for many, many months hiding out in the cold winters, especially here in Vermont,' said Brittany Moser, assistant professor at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Noticing action was needed to protect the salamanders from being decimated under tire wheels along a main road, Vermont locals in Monkton decided to safeguard the wildlife there. Eastern red-backed salamander that is found in Vermont. The community around Monkton is home to just over 2,000 people and many forest area amphibians. It sits in picturesque Addison County, nestled in the Lake Champlain Valley between the Adirondacks and Green Mountains, just over an hour's drive east of Montpelier. The community and members of the Lewis Creek Association and the Monkton Conservation Commission engaged in fundraising and received grants from the Vermont Agency of Transportation and VTF&W to create an amphibian crossing. They wanted to offer protection for large numbers of salamanders being killed while crawling across Moncton Road during their annual treks in the spring and fall. Vermont is home to many different types of rare and common salamanders that can live for 20 years. Some are only three inches long. Others can grow up to six inches in length. The state has the blue-spotted salamander that grows no more than five inches and consumes beetles, earthworms, mites, mosquito larvae, spiders and slugs. From from three to five inches long, the Eastern red-backed salamander is the color of red bricks except for its grayish, granite-colored belly. Vermont also has four-toed salamanders and lots of frogs. A Spring Peeper. One common frog, also prone to being run over, is a minuscule light brownish Spring Peeper. The from is from one to two inches long and named for the peeping sound it makes while exhaling. Side of the Monkton amphibian crossing shows boards to guide wildlife through the culvert underpass ... More opening. Funding was raised to create two culvert tunnels with a concrete fence/wall on both sides. The wall was built a few feet high to keep amphibians within safe passage areas to guide them to the other side of the road. When they reach the wall, they can walk alongside it since it is too high for many to climb. 'Hopefully they choose the right direction. If they choose the wrong direction, they get turned around. They come back and then they go through the structure into the wetland. Then they spend the summer in the wetland. In the fall, they do it in reverse. In terms of the salamanders, it's about a movement of perhaps 600 feet. And it [the spring migration] happens on the first rainy nights above freezing every year,' Hilke said. The tunnel floors must be dry and moist. Dirt is placed inside to ensure there is no running water. Above the tunnels are metal grates built into the road to allow for moisture and moonlight to help the creatures along their way. The grates were designed to stay in place when passed over by snowplows. Grates allow sunlight and moisture to pass through the culverts. Light is critical to help wildife ... More find their way through the tunnels. Moser underscored that even though the migration area may be viewed as short distance of 600 feet that journey is arduous for two-inch and five-inch creatures. 'When you actually scale it to the size of the organism, it's a pretty epic migration for a critter of that size to make, especially given the terrain and the obstacles like the road,' she noted. The inside of the culverts is a simulated natural environment with logs, rocks, flat objects and other debris where salamanders can rest during their migration. A salamander stops in the middle of the Monkton road and is in danger of being run over. Moser worked with Matthew Marcelino (a herpetologist and quantitative ecologist who recently earned his doctorate degree at University of Vermont) on a key study measuring the effectiveness of the Monkton amphibian crossings. A unique aspect of these crossing is data was collected about amphibian mortality rates before and after underpass construction. Moser noted that many wildlife sustainability projects move quickly once funding is obtained without capturing mortality data before construction to demonstrate effectiveness. The numbers in Vermont tell a story of success. Before the Monkton crossing was built there were 1,000 amphibians killed on the road during two spring nights, Marcelino noted. 'After the construction of the underpasses, we noticed there was an 80% decrease in total amphibian mortality. So that's literally saving 800 of those amphibians, which is a huge number. If you think about if that was mammals or birds, that number alone really shows their efficacy [of the road culverts],' he added. Researchers also probed to determine if the crossings helped amphibians that could climb up over the concrete walls such as spring peeper frogs and gray treefrogs. Amphibian Deaths Prevented due to Monkton Wildlife Crossings Data indicated a 73% drop in the number of climbing amphibians during migration due to the tunnels. Which Marcelina called a 'huge' amount in those creatures saved from being run over on the road. The culverts are also providing safe conduct for other wildlife seen on cameras such as raccoons, bobcats and bears. A black bear (left) and a bobcat (right) are captured on video using the Monkton amphibian crossing ... More late at night and in the early morning hours. Moser said it is important for transportation planners to realize they can incorporate wildlife crossings into existing roadway projects to lower costs of creating standalone safe animal passages and making travel safer for people and wildlife at the same time. 'There's a benefit to knowing about these things and having them on the radar and to be able to work them into existing road updates," she added. A salamander attempts migrate over the road pavement at night without using the Monkton wildlife ... More underpass. Road kills can have a larger impact on salamanders and other amphibian populations because of how they reproduce. In the case of Vermont's salamanders, they are leaving their winter hibernation to reproduce across the way in marshy areas with water. Once hatched in the water, the young ones must migrate across the road to the dry land to live during colder winter months. 'For some of these species, the [roadway] mortality is a huge impact on population viability if we're losing these animals that are of reproductive age. If they're moving, it's because they're moving to reproduce. Now, we're not just losing them. We're losing their entire reproductive contribution for the year, which could be, depending on the species, many tens or hundreds of eggs that they're contributing,' Moser said. 'So these underpasses, they're there all year round and supporting both directions of migration—adults on the way to the breeding pond and then juveniles as they come up onto land.' Like salamanders, turtle populations can be severely impacted by being run over while trying to cross roads. 'Certain turtle species, for example, are very late to sexual maturity. So you can have just a few hits of female turtles and wipe out an entire population with just a few turtles hit on the roads. Our populations of reptiles and amphibians are in danger,' Hilke noted. A cost benefit analysis of wildlife crossings for amphibians, in particular, should consider the endangerment of entire populations due to road mortality. 'That's different than thinking about deer or moose. We're not going to lose a whole population. We might lose an individual animal, but the population of those larger animals will remain intact. With reptiles and amphibians that is not the case,' Hilke said. 'It's basic ecology. The whole system is interrelated. If we begin losing some of our biological diversity, the threat is to all of our biological diversity.' Another point to consider is that larger animals have bigger home ranges for migration and aren't concentrated in small corridors like amphibians. Also roads are often constructed between the dry and wet amphibian habitats. 'They ultimately become bisected by these roads, which leads to [population] fragmentation. That's one of the reasons why it's so important to protect amphibians and build these structures because we are perhaps impacting them more than other species because of the sensitivity of their life cycles. A very high proportion of their population takes that same migratory corridor. With larger animals, not all the deer are passing right in a 100-meter section of road, whereas in some locations that is really happening with amphibians. They're highly concentrated,' Moser said. 'The only good news is their migration tends to be at night when traffic is a little less.' Views of the side wall (left) to guide amphibians to the tunnels and car crossing over one of the ... More culvert crossings in Monkton. One special factor about the Monkton wildlife crossing that makes it 'so great and a model for other states and countries is that it was driven by local communities and organizations,' said Groff. He also commended the project for having a scientific foundation with before/after data as well as being financially supported by donations from people as well as government grants. The Monkton Road amphibian crossings have been presented at an international conference and across the Northeast as a model of an innovative and successful wildlife infrastructure crossing project. Hilke is working with other Vermont towns to create similar wildlife crossings. A first step, he says, is to collect wildlife mortality data at potential infrastructure crossing locations. A key way to obtain funding for such projects is to demonstrate significant roadway death rates for wildlife, especially rare species. In Vermont and other areas along the Eastern coast, Hilke says underpasses can provide more effective wildlife crossings that overpasses especially due to flooding related to climate change. Blue-spotted salamander. 'In our context, we can meet multiple objectives like allowing for floodwater and allowing for aquatic and terrestrial passages by appropriately sizing our gray infrastructure. As we think about climate adaptation, this gray infrastructure is a solution that works for society and works for our ecology,' Hilke said. 'The power of Monkton is in the story and exciting people in Vermont and around the Northeast, and hopefully even around the world, that we can have a transportation system that works effectively for the traveling public and also stewards our wildlife. It's not an either or. We can have both.'
BBC News
18-05-2025
- BBC News
The New York region that changed history 250 years ago
A surprise dead-of-night attack helped lead to US independence from the British. Now, a series of events are commemorating the region's pivotal role in shaping the nascent nation. In the violet-grey twilight before dawn in May 1775, a skeleton crew of soldiers were asleep inside Fort Ticonderoga, a British-held garrison on the banks of Lake Champlain in New York's Adirondack region, when a series of shouts rang out. Rushing to their posts, the men were stunned by the sight of six dozen American soldiers streaming over the fort's walls, flintlock rifles in hand, demanding surrender. With the British outnumbered and taken off guard, American victory was swift and bloodless. The fort's commander, sergeants, gunners and artillerymen were imprisoned and the invading forces captured 100 cannons and valuable weapons for the Continental Army. The surprise attack was a pivotal moment in the lead-up to the American War of Independence and marked the Continental forces' first offensive victory of the war that led to the United States' founding in 1776. This year, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the conflict that shaped the nation, Fort Ticonderoga is hosting a series of new museum exhibits alongside its regular lineup of historical reenactments, guided tours and boat cruises – all of which provides travellers with a great jumping-off point to explore a region replete in Revolutionary War history. Lake Champlain is a vast expanse that extends for roughly 435 square miles, straddling the borders of western Vermont and eastern New York and spilling into the Richelieu and St Lawrence rivers, which stretch north to Montreal and Quebec City in Canada. As Fort Ticonderoga curator Matthew Keagle told me, this made the waterway and its most prominent garrisons – Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point, located 10 miles south – key locations for the movement of British troops, supplies and intelligence during the colonial period (roughly 1600 through 1776). Emboldened by the Massachusetts militiamen who defended the towns of Lexington and Concord against British forces and initiated the war a month earlier in April 1775, two of the US's more colourful Revolutionary War figures turned north-west towards Lake Champlain. Ethan Allen, leader of the scrappy Green Mountain Boys militia, and Benedict Arnold, an ambitious, impetuous merchant whose name would later become synonymous with treachery, reluctantly agreed to share command of a dead-of-night attack on Ticonderoga."What was effectively a defensive war against the British… now turns into something very different," said Keagle, smartly dressed in a royal blue coat and knee-high boots, not unlike those depicted in the famous painting Capture of Fort Ticonderoga, which the historian stood in front of. "It dramatically changes the scope of the conflict." The weapons captured at the fort were hauled 300 miles by oxen and ice sledge to Boston, where Patriots used them to batter, and ultimately expel, British troops in March 1776. Today, some of those cannons, mortars and Howitzers are among 200,000 objects displayed at Fort Ticonderoga's museum, which houses the western hemisphere's largest collection of 18th- and early 19th-Century munitions, and the US's largest assemblage of 18th-Century military uniforms. Weaponry and cultural artefacts can also be found at the newly expanded museum at Crown Point, which was also captured by the Americans in May 1775. The experiences at the two sites diverge from there. Ticonderoga, or "Fort Ti" as locals call it, was restored to its original glory with squat, thick walls, pointed corners and a three-storey barracks building. Each year, staff launch new programming highlighting different periods of the bastion's history. This year's includes a new exhibit showcasing the US's nascent national identity, reenactments exploring everything from Arnold's surprising command to the science of defence and a demonstration showing how soldiers would have rowed fleet ships to and from Fort Ticonderoga. More like this:• The quiet Massachusetts towns that sparked a revolution• The birthplace of the US vacation• The manmade waterway that transformed the US "We constantly have to reevaluate how we understand the past," said Keagle, of the fort's frequently changing educational events. "We want to bring visitors into the discussion, whether that's through our more specialised programmes like seminars and lectures, or by walking our trails and visiting our garden to see how people lived in this period of history." By contrast, Crown Point is an elegiac ruin, the remnants of its 18th-Century military architecture reaching skyward from the fields. A series of well-marked trails loop around the historical site and ring the shoreline, including one that connects to the North Country Scenic Trail, which crosses eight northern US states. Because the site lies along the Atlantic Flyway, depending on the time of year, you might hear the effervescent chatter of bobolinks (which arrive in late April) , see raptors winging overhead and waterfowl gliding across the lake. Since 1976, Crown Point's bird-banding station has recorded more than 126,000 birds across 110 species. The Crown Point site is also a photographer favourite, both for its bird sightings and frozen-in-time features like a pair of abandoned limestone barracks and historical graffiti carved into the stones. "We're preserving the ruins of structures and the archaeological record beneath the surface," explained site manager Sam Huntington. Around the region, a number of hikes offer panoramic views of both the inimitable Adirondack landscape and its Revolutionary landmarks. At Coot Hill Trail, a hike known mainly to locals located about 10 miles away from Crown Point in the town of Moriah, New York, I met Arin Burdo, executive director of Champlain Area Trails (CAT). Our boots crunched through a late crust of snow along the moderately challenging 1.1-mile path to the 1,100-ft summit of Bulwagga Mountain. "The 46 High Peaks [the highest peaks in the region] get all the attention in the Adirondacks," Burdo told me. "Many of these lower-elevation hikes have big payoffs, and features like historic cemeteries or great birding, without the crowds." As the trees parted around the summit, a blanket of farms and meadows spread out below. Peregrine falcons rode air currents arcing over the cliffs, set against the distant backdrop of the Green Mountains of Vermont. To the north, the ghostly barracks of Crown Point stood out along Lake Champlain's shore. The region holds plenty of interest beyond its Revolutionary past. Fishing and boating are popular in this part of the 400,000-acre Champlain-Adirondack Unesco Biosphere Reserve, but outdoor guide Elizabeth Lee encourages terrestrial exploration, especially on CAT's 100 miles of trails. Here you may find bobcats and white-tail deer, and fancifully named plants such as scaly shagbark hickory and Dutchman's breeches, their flowers like tiny white pantaloons suspended upside-down on a clothesline. "The CAT trails definitely give a slice of life over time," Lee said, pointing to features that date from the colonial through the Revolutionary period and beyond. "Some have remnants of quarries, mining, farming, forestry, which takes you through the early 1900s. And there's a lot of really fun architecture [that shows] the changes in American society in those towns." Case in point: Defiance Hall by War Cannon Spirits, a distillery opened in 2022. In its cavernous, circa-1820 sawmill building, five miles from the Crown Point Historic Site, a stone alcove behind the long wooden bar was lined with whiskey, rye and vodka. I sipped a Cannonball Old Fashioned, made with whiskey, bitters, maple syrup and ginger, and wondered who used the centuries-old forest behind me to slip between strategic locations. On any given day in the hamlet of Elizabethtown, New York, originally settled by Revolutionary War veterans, you'll find a few dozen of the town's 1,000 residents, plus visitors like me, gathered at the Deer's Head Inn. Opened 1808 and used as a hospital during the War of 1812, it's now a hotel and restaurant featuring local, sustainably produced foods that nod to the cuisine of the Revolutionary past: potted lamb served with toast and curry sauce, dry-cured meats, pickled vegetables and a pear and apple crumble atop a rustic pie crust. Night had fallen by the time I stopped in the town of Schroon, New York, founded just after the Revolution on a 141-sq-mile lake of the same name. Moonlight glimmered on the glassy water, diffusing pinpricks of yellow light from the hilltop cabins of the Lodge at Schroon Lake, which opened in 2023 on the grounds of a former religious compound. Like many places within the Adirondacks, the reminders of the US's founding here are both visible and elusive – preserved in ruins, reimagined in modern-day interpretations and reconstructions, and alive in our collective memory. -- For more Travel stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
