Salamander Crossing Brigades    

For the past five years the DCC has worked in partnership with the Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (BEEC) to organize efforts to reduce amphibian mortality where they must cross roads to reach their breeding habitat. With the first warm spring rains, salamander crossing guards spend the evening transporting amphibians (sometimes hundreds in one night) safely across roads. Mortality is significantly reduced. There are currently thirteen sites in Dummerston where volunteers work on migration nights.
    
   BEEC coordinates crossing brigades in towns throughout southeastern Vermont, and the data collected by volunteers has shown that Dummerston has the highest population of Jefferson salamanders, Ambystoma Jeffersonianum, in our region. This species is listed as S2 (a species of greatest conservation need) in Vermont. In some pools the Jefferson salamanders outnumber the more common spotted salamanders.