Oct 15th EwA Vernal Pool Documentation Field Session (Recap)

[EwA]

Thanks again to all of you who came yesterday to the EwA vernal pool documentation field session. This is important citizen science work! Doing so we advance scientific knowledge while protecting effectively those very fragile habitats. Here's the recap of what we've done and observed together. 

Event > Protecting Vernal Pools in the Fells

Date	10/15/19
Site	MHS Sites
Surveyor’s Names	Claire (EwA) + Jen (EwA) + Kylie (Guest) + Penny (Guest)
Time	9:30am-12:15pm
Weather	Sunny / Still / Beaufort Scale: 0
Approximate Temperature	~15-17°C/59-63°F / Humidity: 35%
Foot & paw traffic (low, medium or high?) Low < 5 | Med 5-10 | High > 10	Low ☑ // A few walkers aside from the EwA surveyors.

Conducted Tasks

Program introduction to audience & DCR participant, including biodiversity and the need for its documentation: ground-truthing, data gaps, surveillance & monitoring of invasive epidemics, fieldwork ethics, citizen science (need and empowerment in tackling the widespread science knowledge deficit, etc.) Hiked to PVP #13888 (see the MassGIS PVP layer for details), to ground-truth it and establish a characterization baseline > i.e. phys. documentation at this time of the year + (US Army Corp) Pool characteristics recording ( > phys. documentation to be accessible in end of year report for pools with complete documentation).

Session Records

• Physical evidence + vegetation description > EwA VP Folder (EwA access only)

• Biodiversity session records (all taxa in bounding box focused on the candidate pool) > 

• Biodiversity session records (all taxa in bounding box focused on field session at large) >

• No pooling > Dried conditions. Session records per surveyed pool > i.e. one record of secondary VP species indicator (spring peeper) in the vicinity of the pool.

Notes | Authors: Claire + Jen General: Candidate pool located. Pool condition: dry phase.  Filled Vernal Pool characterization form for PVP #13888 (LVW code to ask Matt) + took visual records of pool condition and phys. features. Plant community for PVP (pool + canopy) Maple (30%) // sugar predominantly Oaks (5%) // red & white present Beech (~1%) Sweet pepper bush (< 10%) Marsh fern (< 1%) Buckthorn (< 1%)

Phys. record: Dry condition of the pool

📧 Community Update 

Quick Session update sent to DCR right after the session // Designated DCR representative did not show up and we wanted to make sure we did not miss her in the field > The time to go over protocol, we left for the field 20 minutes after the session start. In short, we hiked to PVP #13888 (see the MassGIS PVP layer for details), to ground-truth it and establish a characterization baseline. + informed that our next dates are back to Mondays for the season: Oct 28th, Nov 11th, Nov 25th, and Dec 29th.

📆 EwA Event Calendar » http://earthwiseaware.eventbrite.com/

ⓘ More about this project (field protocol) » http://tinyurl.com/ewa-vp-field-protocol

ⓘ More about EwA Citizen Science Program » https://tinyurl.com/ewa-citizen-science

#vernalPools #amphibians #reptiles #wetlands #urbanWildlife #endangered #conservation #biodiversity #citizenScience