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Whether you know it or not, you have probably heard the high-pitched chorus of peepers emanating from a nearby woodland. Peepers are small frogs that live in eastern woodlands and lay their eggs in vernal pools during the spring thaw. I encountered peepers, and eventually, vernal pools, while scouting for evidence of climate change in coastal wetlands. These pools became the subject of a project I have been working on for the last two years. Vernal pools are temporary wetlands that appear in the woods each spring, often in overlooked spaces along roadsides, behind developments, and at the edges of managed land. Once you start looking for them, you realize how often places where life flourishes are hiding right there in plain sight. For a few critical weeks, these delicate ecosystems become essential breeding grounds for all sorts of creatures that can't survive anywhere else. Here’s a vernal pool doing its thing in a wooded area in Concord…
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