Where Life Springs Ephemeral

摘要

Equipped with rain gear, headlamps, and hip waders, we walk through the Vermont woods on a dark, rainy night in late March. The air temperature is about forty-five degrees, and ground fog gathers in low places, helping to melt the patches of snow that remain from winter. We hear the call of a spring peeper and are startled by a bolting deer, then pause when one of our headlamps lights up the wet ground: three glistening salamanders are methodi- cally walking ahead of us on the forest floor. About ten inches long, these purple-black creatures splotched with large yellow spots are rarely seen in daylight. They are moving slowly, joining others of their kind in a trek to their ancestral pond to breed.