By Nate Jones
Staff Writer
Mainers are not strangers to springtime puddles in their backyards, and many conservationists are taking a look at a special kind of pool that can be found statewide.
Paul Austin, director of the Scarborough Conservation Committee originally introduced the study to the town council Jan. 2. The Scarborough Town Council reviewed a proposal to map and identify significant vernal pools after the Leader’s deadline this week.
Austin said vernal pools are a “seasonal body of water with no predatory fish present.” By state mandate a vernal pool is to be protected by a 250-foot setback if it contains certain species of woodfrogs, salamanders and shrimp.
“It’s really an amazing ecosystem that supports these critical indicator species,” Austin said.
He said he has memories of coming across such pools when he was a child and bringing tadpoles home to watch them grow.
The estimated cost of the project Austin presented to the town council is $10,000. Austin said $9,000 of the proposed budget would go to Woodlot Alternatives in Topsham to analyze already existing aerial photographs of the town to identify locations of potential vernal pools.
“We are saving a huge amount of money by not having to take aerials,” Austin said. “Without them we probably wouldn’t have proposed the project.”
The aerial photographs were taken after the snow had melted off the ground, but before the trees had any significant leaf growth, leaving most of the ground and an vernal pools exposed, Austin said. Woodlot Alternatives managed to identify 85 percent of the 131 vernal pools in Falmouth, Austin said, out of which 123 were identified as “significant” and are now protected by setbacks. Austin said he expects possibly 225 pools to be identified in Scarborough, due to the large presence of wetlands and wooded areas in town.
“We may have to come back next year if the number of pools is overwhelmingly large,” Austin said.
The budget for the project, however, would remain the same regardless of the number of pools identified, he said, as the “guys on the ground” locating and identifying the pools would be a volunteer force. The remaining $1,000 in the budget is for a mailing that will be sent to landowners, asking permission for access to the pools.
“If a landowner loves his land, they should be fascinated by the pools,” Austin said, adding he is hopeful most landowners will be open to the project.
“Most landowners were cooperative with our efforts,” Caleb Hemphill, who was on the Falmouth Conservation board at the time of their project, said, “Although some were very clear they would not allow permission.”
While some Scarborough landowners may be hesitant to allow access to the pools, Austin said, “it is a win-win for everybody.” As per the state mandate, landowners looking to subdivide or develop their property in the future will have costs for a vernal pool survey. Since such an assessment, can only be done during a specific time of the year, it could interfere with building schedules, Austin said,.
At the town council’s Jan. 2 meeting, Harvey Rosenfeld, president and executive director of Scarborough Economic Development Corporation (SEDCO), said the mapping project would create incentives for developers to purchase land included with significant pools already identified by the mapping project.
“It could save people a lot of headache,” Rosenfeld said. “It is always better to know what you have and we hope that developers will see this as a positive.”
Vernal pools vary in size: Austin said he had seen pools only three feet in diameter, and heard of those the size of “small ponds” as well. Austin also said the mandate does allow exceptions and “can be modified” under the right circumstances. Perhaps the largest pool in the state, Austin said, was found in Falmouth during their vernal pool identification program, and happened to fall in an area scheduled for development.
“We had hoped to connect two projects and the pool happened to sit exactly where it would make sense to put a road,” said Amanda Stearns, community director in Falmouth.
Stearns said the project was able to continue after the developer was granted a permit by the state to burrow underneath the pool, and a sewer line was successfully installed without harming the pool or its inhabitants. Stearns said the additional restrictions vernal pools pose have not curtailed development to a great degree in Falmouth.
As Austin has planned for Scarborough, the Falmouth project was largely dependant upon the volunteer work of local residents who were trained with the help of the Maine Audubon Society.
“We would really like to have landowners trained in pool identification, or even just walking with us,” Austin said.
Sally Stockwell, the director of conservation for Maine Audubon spearheaded the Falmouth volunteer education and would also be involved in the Scarborough project.
“Training the volunteers was extremely important,” Hemphill said. “You can’t have people parading around in the woods who don’t know what they’re looking for.”
Stockwell said also believed the best way to be successful was to educate residents and hopefully inspire them to volunteer their time. Should the town council approve funding for the project, one of the conservation committee’s many immediate goals is to “spread awareness to landowners and residents,” Austin said.
“All of our volunteers were really excited,” Stockwell said. She estimated it would take 30 volunteers to complete the Scarborough mapping project, twice as many that participated in Falmouth.
Unlike the Falmouth project, Austin said he plans on using latitude and longitude coordinates from the Woodlot Alternatives’ assessment of the aerial photos along with handheld GPS units, provided by volunteers, to locate pools for identification.
“We are going to have a lot of pools to find and not much time to do it in,” Austin said.
Stockwell said during the Falmouth project she and the volunteers – using maps and compasses in their attempts to locate the pools – often far from access roads, “got turned around.”
“We have a large geo-caching community and plenty of fish and game enthusiasts in town and we hope that some of them will volunteer,” Austin said.