Association of Vermont Conservation Commissions

The Ripton Conservation Commission (RCC) began a new project during the Spring of 2024. Working with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE), the RCC ventured out to find where vernal pools are located in the town of Ripton. This project will be ongoing and each Spring we will look to add a couple of additional vernal pools to our list.

To get us started, Vermont Center for Ecostudies recommended viewing some obvious spots along the Ripton-Goshen Road. While those spots turned out to be disappointments (perhaps due to a low-snowfall winter), in the midst of searching for them, a different vernal pool was found. We took a photograph of the new pool and of the compass-coordinate reading on our iPhones, which is the information that VCE needs to confirm and map new vernal pools.

Next, we wanted to engage the community, especially children. So we offered an outdoor presentation at an RCC member’s pond on a late Tuesday afternoon. Fourteen community members attended with their children. There we viewed frog and spotted salamander eggs, caddisfly larvae, and fingernail clams. We took a walk to a beaver pond for more education, and then we ventured to two spots that were marked as potential vernal pools. Sure enough, they were two new vernal pools to add to our logs! What a nice hike, and so much more fun when members of the community join the program!

We are now reviewing ways in which to get the community more involved next spring. As VCE mentioned, the best way to find vernal pools in your town is to collect information from townspeople that own the private land near and around potential pools. If anyone has a suggestion of the best way to collect this information from the townspeople, please let us know at Ripton Conservation Commission.