STAR-GAZETTE (Elmira, New York) 14 April 06 Love among salamanders - Couple leave few stones unturned in search for amphibians in Chemung County. (Jim Pfiffer)
They only come out at night, in the spring, when it's raining.
That's when the salamanders make their annual migrations to nearby vernal ponds, where they were born. Their mission is single-minded. They mate and return to the woods to live underground in obscurity for the rest of the year.
The salamanders' life cycle may sound like a boring one, but not to the Elmira Heights couple who are studying the slippery amphibians and the importance of wetlands.
This time of year, Chris and Melissa Yearick spend most of their early-spring nights sloshing through soggy and chilly woodlands in Chemung County searching for amphibians. Their favorites are the yellow-spotted and Jefferson salamanders - prized finds for amphibian aficionados. But more on that later. First, let's meet the Yearicks.
While most couples go out to the movies or dinner, Chris and Melissa do their dating at the small shallow pools and ponds that evaporate in the summer heat. Chris, ever the romantic, took Melissa on a late-night amphibian search for one of their first dates. Perhaps it was love at first hike.
“She wanted me to take her out to the ponds and show her what I was doing, and look for salamanders,” Chris says. “You don't find many women like that.”
You don't find many people as dedicated to their work as Chris and Melissa. One or both of them go out every night or morning, between March 13 and the end of this month, checking the buckets Chris buried near ponds to catch salamanders. As part of Chris' study, they count, measure and note the gender of each amphibian.
“You can't leave them in the trap for very long ,” Chris says “or they'll dry up and die.”
That's why Chris and Melissa are sometimes out in the woods until 3 a.m.
“I wouldn't have it any other way,” Melissa says. “It's nice that we have a shared interest. It keeps us busy and together.”
That's life when you study the life of salamanders. That's what Chris is doing as part of his doctorate program at Binghamton University. He and his wife work for the Upper Susquehanna Coalition - an organization that's involved in the mapping, study and protection of water, wetlands and land use in 14 New York counties.
Chris has been intrigued with salamanders, snakes, lizards and bugs since he was a kid, crawling around in creeks and ponds to capture whatever he could to take home and put in aquariums and jars.
“We always had animals in the house - snakes, mice, rabbits and anything I could catch,” says the 31-year-old Chris. “My mom (Marie) was an amateur naturalist.”
Today, Chris and Melissa hope to pass on their love and respect for nature and the environment to their 21-month-old daughter, Natalie, who sometimes joins them on their late-night trips to the ponds.
It's hard to love a salamander. They're not furry and cuddly and don't do tricks. But they are part of nature and good indicators of the health of the environment.
That's why the Yearicks will stop along the roads at night to pull a salamander off the pavement and take it to the side of the road where it won't get squashed - a common fate for amphibians during their springtime migrations to vernal ponds.
The ponds are essential to the life cycles of salamanders, frogs, toads, dragonflies and freshwater shrimp. Because the ponds dry up, they don't contain fish and other predators that would eat the amphibians and their eggs before they hatch.
Where there are no ponds, Chris has built them — 16 to be exact and on private property in the last two years, using bulldozers and other heavy equipment. He's trying to determine whether the amphibians can live in the manmade ponds.
That's important, because some ponds and wetlands in Lowman have to be replaced because of construction of Interstate 86 in that area.
The Yearicks often take friends, schoolkids, the pond landowners and anyone else interested in learning about wetlands with them on their nighttime amphibious soirees.
“We want to get the word out about the importance of protecting our wetlands,” Melissa says.
Because the migration is short and during rainy and miserable nights, most people never see the reclusive salamanders.
When they do, they're usually awed.
That's important because wetlands do more than support a variety of life. They help reduce flooding and filter pollutants from water.
“If we can get people interested in it,” Chris says, “they may help protect the salamanders and the wetlands.”
Love among salamanders