OEC's Vernal Pool presentation at the workshop on Feb 21, 2009.

1. Vernal Pool Monitoring
Workshop
Stratford Ecological
Center
February 21, 2009
David R. Celebrezze
Director of Air & Water
Special Projects

2. The OEC
The Ohio Environmental Council
advocates for healthy air, land,
and water to make Ohio a better
place in which to live, work, and
play.

3. Overview
» Registration/welcome
» OEC’s Vernal Pool Program
This is a space for a photo or
» Vernal pools in the age of
graphic or more text.
development
» Lunch
» How to construct a vernal
pool
» State overview
» Creature feature
» How to monitor
» Field trip
» Conclusion
» Vernal pool stickers
» Central Ohio Vernal Pool
Monitoring Team sign up form

4. Thank you!
» Columbus Foundation
» Stratford Ecological Center
» Ohio EPA
» Franklin Soil and Water
Conservation District
» MAD Scientist & Associates,
LLC

5. OEC’s Water Program
» Great Lakes Restoration
» Ditches
» Wetlands
» Ohio River
» Statehouse

6. OEC’s Water Program
» Raise awareness of vernal
pools and the links that make it
an integral part of a healthy
ecosystem and improve quality
of life.
» Ohio Vernal Pool Partnership
(w/listserv) (www.ovpp.org)

7. Wetlands- Historical Aspect
» Original around 5,000,000
acres
» Acreage lost: 4,517,200
» Less than .05% of Ohio is now
wetlands
90+%

8. Main Culprits
» Poorly planned developments
» Ignorance:
» Vernal pools are dry by
summer’s end

9. Solutions: Ohio EPA 401
proposed rules
» Every 5 years the Agency reviews the rules that
govern how a permit to impact a wetland is
issued/denied.
» The OEC participated in the many wetland and
stream external advisory groups
» The good:
» Performance standards for mitigated
wetlands
» The bad:
» No avoidance language
» The ugly:
» Many wetlands are mitigated outside the
watershed

10. Solutions: Ohio’s Vernal Pool
Mitigation Program
» Compensatory mitigation program
» Developers who destroy a wetland must replace
them
» Focused on vernal pools to increase their
numbers

11. Vernal Pool Quiz #1
» What animal that relies on vernal pools is
considered to be the “coldest” animal on the
planet (outside bacteria and crustaceans)?
Photo: ODNR

12. What is a vernal pool?
» Seasonal wetland that are separated from other
bodies of water
» Usually dry up by summer’s end
» NO FISH!!
» Meet hydric soil, hydrology, flora criteria

13. Better definition
A mini ecosystem that plays out every spring. A small but
dynamic, wetland that fills with water, blossoms with life and
hosts a cacophony of sounds and a plethora of life forms every
spring, only to disappear into the forest floor every autumn.

14. Caddisfly
American Bullfrog
Predacious diving
Wood frog
Who lives in a vernal pool?
beetle
Green frog
Crawling water
Northern Leopard frog
beetle
Pickerel frog
Water scavenger
Gray Treefrog
beetle
Spring Peeper
Whirligig beetle
Spadefoot toad
Common green
American toad
darner
Fowler’s toad Water mites
Black-tipped
Spotted salamander Amphipod
Dragonfly Isopod
Marbled salamander
Fairy shrimp
Yellow-legged
Blue-spotted
Clam shrimp
meadowhawk
salamander
Ostracod
Common
Jefferson salamander
Daphnia
baskettails
Re-spotted newt
Copepod
Frosted whiteface
Four-toed salamander
Amphibious snails
Four-spotted
Redback salamander
Fingernail clam
Skimmer
Northern water snake
Horsehair worm
Backswimmers
Eastern garter snake
Planaria
Water boatman
Ribbon snake
Leech
Water scorpion
Spotted turtle
Aquatic
Giant water bug
Wood turtle
oligochaete worms
Water strider
Blanding’s turtle Photo: L. Lee Cerny
Swamp white oak
Fishfly
Snapping turtle
Sweet pepperbush
Mayfly
Eastern painted turtle
Three-way sedge
Chironomid midge
Eastern box turtle
Phantom midge
Mosquito
Springtails

15. Who lives in a vernal pool?
Balsam fir
Tussock sedge
Beggar’s-ticks, stick-
Viburnum
tights
Water lilies
Birches
White oak
Black ash
White pine
Black willow
White spruce
Black spruce
Willows
Marsh fern
Bladderwort
Winterberry
Northern white
Bluejoint
Withered, wild raisin cedar
Box elder
Yellow birch Pin oak
Bulrushes
Sedges Pitch pine
Burreed
Sensitive fern Poison ivy
Buttonbush
Sheepberry Pondweeds
Cardinal flower
Sheep laurel Red maple
Catbriar
Silver maple Red spruce
Cinnamon fern
Smooth alder Reed canary grass
Eastern cottonwood
Stinging nettle River birch
Green ash
Speckled alder Rushes
Hemlock
Swamp loosestrife, Mallard Duck
Highbush blueberry
walter Willow Wood Duck
Leatherleaf
Alders Raccoon
Maleberry Photo: Ray Stewart
American elm Canada Geese
Manna grasses
Arrowwood Snow Geese
Atlantic white cedar

16. Functions and Benefits
» Flood control
» Mosquito control
» Improves water quality
» Educational opportunities
» Recreational opportunities (photography)
» Habitat to hundreds of species
» Improves property values and quality of life

17. How to find a vernal pool
Team up with local watershed group
(www.ohiowatersheds.osu.edu/groups/)
and/or county soil and water conservation
district
(www.dnr.state.oh.us/soilandwater/default/sw
cds/default/tabid/9093/Default.aspx)
Check out National Wetland Inventory
- www.fws.goc/nwi/
- Click on “wetlands mapper”
- Next “Go to wetalnds mapper”
- Click on map of the US
Photo: ODNR

18. How to find a property owner
County Auditor’s office
Franklin County:
www.co.franklin.oh.us/auditor
search by “Property Maps GIS”
Scroll to bottom and search by address,
point on a map or intersection
Write property owner a letter

19. Vernal Pool Quiz #2
What animal that occasionally uses vernal pools is
considered the smelliest animal on earth?

20. OEC’s Vernal Pool Program
» Monitoring
» Online database
» Curriculum
» Land owner brochure
» Educational DVD
» Potential vernal pool mapping

21. Monitoring opportunities
» Friends of Wetlands
» Stratford Ecological Center
» Tom Biebeihauser (see handout)

22. Vernal pool quiz #3
» What animal is considered the best “water
walker” on earth?

23. Vernal Pool DVD
» Threats to Protection

24. How You Can Get Involved
» Contact local watershed group
» Join the OVPP listserv
» Stay on top of legislation and take
action on it by signing up for the OEC’s
Action Alerts at www.theOEC.org.
1207 Grandview Avenue, Suite 201
Columbus, OH 43212
(614) 487-7506
OEC @theOEC.org
www.theOEC.org