Mapping New Jersey's Vernal Pools

Identification, Delineation and Faunal Surveys of Vernal Pools in New Jersey:

What are vernal pools?

Vernal pools are confined depressions, either natural or man-made, that
maintain ponded water for part of the year and are devoid of breeding fish
populations. These temporary wetlands provide habitat to many species of
amphibians-several of which breed exclusively in vernal pools-as well as a
multitude of insects, reptiles, plants, and other wildlife.

Why do they need protection?

Although the NJ Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act has been in place since
1989, it has done little to protect vernal pools because wetlands <1 acre (most
vernal pools in NJ are <0.25 acre) were exempt from the regulatory protection.
Vernal pools could be filled, drained, or modified with a general permit. The
loss of this critical habitat put the species that depend on vernal pools for
breeding habitat at risk. Click here and rollover the image to view an example
of vernal pool habitat loss.

Who is involved in this project?

In conjunction with new, long-awaited Department of Environmental Protection
legislation adopted in September 2001 that affords vernal pools protection, the
Endangered and Nongame Species Program's established its Vernal Pool Project,
which is dedicated effort mapping and surveying vernal pools throughout the
state. Vernal pools that provide documented habitat for certain amphibian and
reptiles species (= certified) will be afforded regulatory protection through
the new rule. Eventually these certified vernal pools will also be integrated
as a data layer into the Landscape Project's Critical Habitat Mapping, which is
a comprehensive map of New Jersey's wildlife habitat intended to assist land
use planning.

Because of their ephemeral nature and small size, locating vernal pools with
conventional mapping is a challenging task. Therefore,The Rutgers University
Center for Remote Sensing & Spatial Analysis (CRSSA) has been contracted to
develop a suite of computer-aided techniques to identify and delineate vernal
ponds in New Jersey using an assortment of on-screen digitizing, image
processing and GIS-based classification techniques.

[Summary provided by Rutgers University.]