You may have received your Cape Ann Vernal Pond Team 2018 Newsletter by now. If you're not on our snail mail list, let me know. Or you can check it out on line. Thanks to our fabulous newsletter committee for making it happen... and it looks pretty amazing if I do say so myself. Biologist Nathan Mineo has an interesting article about Trees and ... well should read it.

So... we had a nice little field trip last night to Long and Narrow in Ravenswood Park. We saw a nice array of spotted salamanders and a cheeseload of fairy shrimp, which delighted our guests of honor, Margaret and Pearl, Nicks' five-year-old twin nieces. Too cool for much frog action. We saw the Easter Bunny.
Stand by, the weather is going to warm up sometime. April fools...

Are you off during the weekdays during the school year and want to help us out? This is a great opportunity to help us out when we really need it. Our young volunteers are in school and some of our adults have job commitments during the weekdays. We don’t do as many school presentations during the school year as we would like because its often difficult to get volunteers. We’re looking for a cadre of daytime volunteers.

Are you a walker? Walk in the Gloucester Pride Stride at Stage Fort Park on April 29th which is designed as a walk-a-thon to raise money to support local nonprofits. You can walk for us and help us out by raising a few dollars in the process. We’ll also have a booth with some critters if the weather is suitable.

Are you or the kids ready to head out in the evening and catch a glimpse of migrating and breeding at our local vernal ponds? We have some nighttime vernal pond field trips coming up so check your emails and we’ll let you know when the conditions are right and we’re ready to head out and see what we can find.

On Monday, March 26th at 6:00 pm we'll be holding our Annual Meeting at the Get Outside Center. It's open to the public. Hope you can make it.

We are really gearing up for our activities this year. Use this link to access our Activity Calendar. You'll find information about upcoming scheduled events like Earth Fest, Pride Stride, Yard Sale, The Fools, and a host of upcoming presentations and exhibits. Get 'em on your calendar early and have some fun volunteering while helping educate the public!

We have Intro to Vernal Ponds shows coming up in April at the Perley School in Georgetown and the Tower School in Marblehead. No dates for those yet.

Be thinking about Nighttime Vernal Pond Field Trips.

On Tuesday, February 20th we gave a "Snakes of New England and the World" presentation for kids at the YMCA in Gloucester. It's always fun to share our snakes at our local YMCA. Thanks to our Volunteers Colleen Anderson, Ann Byers, Kayla Saltonstall, Marisa Neves and Rick. Thanks go to Mike Springer for the article and photos in Thursday's Gloucester Daily Times.