06/11/2026
🦺 LOOKING BACK at a MILESTONE SALAMANDER SEASON 🦺
🔦 2026 was a big year for Big Night! More than 400 volunteers contributed nearly 1,300 hours to our Salamander Crossing Brigade program, helping 10,024 amphibians safely cross roads this spring. That brings our grand total to 107,391 amphibian rescues since 2007!
🚧 In Keene, we worked with the City of Keene Public Works Department to close the North Lincoln Street and Jordan Road crossing sites to vehicles on five migration nights, helping protect amphibians even after our Crossing Brigadiers had gone home.
🐸 Even more exciting: plans are now underway for New Hampshire’s first amphibian tunnels at Jordan Road. Chosen for its Jefferson complex salamanders and backed by years of community science data, the site will become a model for amphibian conservation in the Granite State. The project is a partnership between NH Fish and Game, the City of Keene, and the Harris Center, supported by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s America’s Ecosystem Restoration Initiative.
🦎 Years ago, a fellow Crossing Brigade volunteer wrote, “[This is] the heart of why we keep doing fieldwork in sometimes miserable conditions: it’s important for the earth; it feels really good to be doing something positive; and it’s a hoot to know there are other slimy-fingered loonies out there in the middle of the night sharing the thrills and the heartaches.”
💚 We think of those words every spring. This year, as we celebrate the crossing of our 100,000th amphibian and look ahead to New Hampshire’s first amphibian tunnel project, we’re especially grateful for the community of Crossing Brigadiers that has made it all possible. Rainy night after rainy night, thank you for sharing the thrills and the heartaches with us.
👉 GET MORE DETAILS: https://tinyurl.com/crossing-brigades-2026
📸: Brett Amy Thelen, Clint Spaar, Malachy Duggan (The Wayward Ecologist), Sarah Stan, Kari Percival, Sarah Thomas, Heidi Colburn & Emily Huston
