Today marks the 180th day in a row I have had snow in my front yard. Most had melted as of mid-April and all that remains is what piled up under the edge of my barn roof, and that too shall pass in the coming weeks. Yet it was that point around mid-April that I began to question, once again, why I, as a herpetologist, would choose to live in a place where you can’t actually see frogs, salamanders, turtles, or snakes for almost half of every year. And in the entire state of Vermont, we only have about 40 species reptile and amphibian to begin with, which, compared to a state such as Georgia and its 170 species, sometimes prompts the same question from myself and my colleagues smart enough to live in the south. While I could drone on about the endearing qualities of the Northern Vermont landscape that make it all worthwhile, the answer that resonates most with fellow “herp nerds” is that our harsh winters are actually the very reason for many of the aspects of northern herpetology I find most fascinating.,