The mission of the Ohio Vernal Pool Partnership is to encourage community-based conservation of vernal pools in Ohio through education, partnerships, science, and (re)discovery of our natural world.

© Chris Caprette

Vernal pools derive their name from Latin “vernus”, meaning “belonging to spring”.

These usually small, but very dynamic wetlands fill with water, blossom with life and host a cacophony of sounds and a plethora of life forms every spring, only to disappear into the forest floor every autumn. The organisms that inhabit it race against time and compete with each other every year, their life histories fine-tuned to live in a world where a rain one day too late, a few grams of weight, or an unlucky encounter with predaceous beetle larvae means the difference between life and death. A vernal pool is a place where a good naturalist can weave many fascinating stories about the amazing life forms, adaptations, and life histories of its inhabitants, and demonstrate it by a single swoop of a dip net!

Vernal pool is a miniature, fascinatingly complex and fragile world, with all of its drama played out every year close to our homes, and yet most of us have never witnessed it. They are also one of Ohio ’s most rapidly disappearing natural gems.

© Mick Micacchion

Ohio Vernal Pool Partnership (OVPP) was initiated to encourage community-based conservation of vernal pools through education, partnerships, science, and the discovery of our natural world.

The Ohio Vernal Pool Partnership was founded in 2005 by The Nature Conservancy and The Ohio Environmental Council.  The OVPP grew out of three successful years of the Ohio Environmental Council's Vernal Pool Monitoring Workshops and the efforts of Dr. Deni Porej, Director of Conservation Science at The Nature Conservancy Ohio Chapter.