JEFFERSON — Maine Big Night (MBN) is a nonprofit community science project established to confront the issue of amphibians becoming roadkill en masse. Amphibians, already facing greater threats than many other groups of wildlife, can see localized declines due to roadkill, and are especially vulnerable during their punctual annual migrations. MBN organizes volunteers to assist these animals across the road while collecting valuable data to protect them for decades to come.

This year, community members are invited to join certified Big Night monitor Anneliese Pugh in counting and assisting amphibians as they cross Egypt Road in Jefferson. Monitoring will happen when the temperature is predicted to be 45F or higher with rain, especially heavy rain, starting a bit before monitoring. Because of the weather dependence, it is difficult to know very far in advance when each monitoring evening will be, so interested volunteers can join an email list to be alerted via email 24 hours in advance. 

People of all ages are invited to participate as long as all can obey traffic rules and monitoring directions. Participants need to visit the Maine Big Night website to sign the waiver, but volunteers do not need to be certified as the group will be working with a certified leader. To learn more, go to https://bit.ly/mainebignight.