Erin is an Amphibian Monitoring Program volunteer. She has been with the program since it restarted in 2021. She is very enthusiastic and consistent with gathering and reporting data and will be participating in more herpetology surveys this year.

In honor of Erin we would like to take a moment to highlight her favorite thing in nature: salamanders. She shared these fun facts with us.

Red-backed Salamanders, which are very common around here, are lungless salamanders, so they only breathe through their skin. They have two color morphs: red-backed and lead-backed. They’re also often the most abundant vertebrate in the forest yet hardly anyone ever sees them. Also, they can break off part of the tail to escape predators and re-grow it.

One of Erin’s favorite things to do is look for salamanders. She says, “I love how peeking under each log is like opening a present and you never know what you will find.”

Lead-backed morph (left) and red-backed morph (right).
Photos by Erin Brunner