Help Kermit & company cross the road

Every year, one of our CAC members dons a safety vest, rain jacket, and flashlight and finds herself stopping traffic on Route 144 in New Baltimore. That member is Barbara Heinzen and she is Mother Nature’s ultimate crossing guard. If the slimy, spotted salamander or the bumpy Fowler Toad, or the quick wood frog could talk they would thank her for their protection.

Weather Dependent Migration

The migration crossing is an event not to be missed! The excitement is especially educational for children first learning about the importance of wetlands. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of critical little creatures emerge from their underground winter shelters and head to vernal pools for breeding. The estuary that surrounds Barbara’s home makes for the perfect habitat for an important courtship. “The adult amphibians will gather, breed, and deposit eggs early enough to ensure their aquatic young can hatch, grow and leave the pools before they dry up,” says the DEC. The migration is weather-dependent but it always happens on balmier, rainy nights.

The Bigger Picture

Barbara is also a guardian angel of biological diversity. She’s the protector of all things green and vulnerable. She has worked for decades, without funding, to protect and conserve her Hudson River property from the effects of industrialization. She’s a passionate stakeholder in ensuring that her ecosystem doesn’t fall victim to the same fate as the Port of Coeymans.

She has secured sensitive slopes and soils that border the Hudson river with newly-planted native trees, shrubs, and vegetation. She also unearths tons of garbage and tires that wash up onto the shoreline every spring. Cottontails, white-tailed deer, turtles, even Bald Eagles have slowly but surely migrated to her oasis.

Joy in the Journey

If you’d like to help the aquatic young survive the journey, let Barbara know and she will send you an email with details. Thank you to all for caring about our community!