Every year, NJ town closes a road for these critters — and people love it!

⭕ Beekman Road closes every spring for 22 years for the salamander crossing

⭕ Environmentalist David Moskowitz convinced the mayor

⭕ People turn out nightly to watch the salamanders cross the road

EAST BRUNSWICK — It's another sure sign of spring in Central Jersey when the salamanders cross the road that is closed to give them safe passage.

Every late winter, the salamanders cross from one side of Beekman Road in East Brunswick, which turns into White Pine Road in South Brunswick, to get to their breeding pond.

After laying their eggs, they will cross the road to return home.

It was the observation of David Moskowitz, president of the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission and chairman of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission, that started this spring tradition nearly 25 years ago.

"I was exploring East Brunswick and wound up over by where the vernal pools are and found and found quite a few salamanders and frogs that had been squashed by cars on Beekman Road," Moskowitz told New Jersey 101.5. "I took a live spotted salamander and one of the squashed spotted salamanders over to the mayor's office and said, 'We need to do something.' "

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Let's go watch the salamanders

The mayor instantly agreed to close Beekman Road the following year and it's been happening yearly ever since. But the annual crossing of the salamanders has been going on probably for a millennium.

"Before there were roads and the bisected habitats, you had continuous woods between where the salamanders and frogs spend winter and the vernal pools where they need to breed. And at some point, a road was put in between them," Moskowitz said.

"Anytime a car interacts with a frog or a salamander, the car will always win and the frog and the salamander will lose."

This year, the road closure began Feb. 27.

Beekman Road is not considered a major road and tends to flood during heavy rain so closing the road is not an inconvenience for the four to 10 nights the road is closed during March and April. When the road is closed, it becomes an attraction.

"We get so many people coming out embracing it and wanting to see the migration that it's really not. It's really not a problem that we close the road. I was trying to estimate it, but I would say there were, conservatively 250 or 300 people that came out while I was there. It's a salamander and frog party," Moskowitz said.

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Other towns start their own salamander crossings

The road closures over the years have helped the salamander population and brought frogs into the picture, including a new closure in Princeton. A town in the Sourland Mountains and near the Delaware Water Gap have started their own road closure after consulting with Moskowitz. Others will move the salamanders and frogs because the road can't be closed.

"Observationally, we have many, many more salamanders and frogs crossing the road than we had when we started. In fact, when we started, we didn't have any wood frogs in the vernal pools. And we now have great breeding populations of wood frogs." Moskowitz said.

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