BRIDGTON – With warmer weather slowly becoming more noticeable, the pristine snow is getting more cluttered. The powder has turned to an icy crust, covered with debris and snow fleas.

But no matter how dirty it gets, the snow will still provide a hint of the animals that have trod upon it.

On Friday, two women led by Bridie McGreavy, conservation and education director at the Lakes Environmental Association in Bridgton, stopped beside a tell-tale set of tracks in the 700-acre Holt Pond Preserve. McGreavy asked her protégées to see the tracks from three different viewpoints: flying, to determine where in the forest they were; standing, to see how the animal was moving; and lying, to observe the details of the print.

McGreavy said people will often think of a specific animal when they see a print and simply discount any other creature.

“When you do that, it really does close your mind to other possibilities,” she said.

In this case, the differing perspectives revealed the tracks to be in a red maple swamp, offset in their positioning, and three-toed with an elongated print at the end. The culprit: a crow, possibly a raven.

The snowshoe expedition through the preserve also discovered tracks by a snowshoe hare and red fox. Explorations earlier in the year have found tracks from weasels, squirrels and fishers, although McGreavy says the preserve contains most of the mammals found in Maine.

“We’ve been finding a pretty good diversity of animal species,” she said.

McGreavy, who has been tracking animals for seven years, says the footprints in the snow may play a big part in the LEA’s future work.

“Ultimately, we’d like this data to guide our management decisions,” she said.

Currently, the LEA’s management decisions are based on the use guidelines for the preserve, which ban dogs but allow hunting. McGreavy says the tracks offer a look at the species that have visited the preserve and how abundant they may be, which could affect those choices.

The animal tracking workshop in the preserve was the last of three such expeditions that have taken place since January. McGreavy says the greater use of data from independent observers in the preserve or elsewhere will help bolster the results that the LEA has at the moment.

“It’s been very patchy,” McGreavy said. “The more tracking runs you do, the better your data is.”

She said the “citizen science” approach has proven to be effective. In addition, it engages the observer in an experience they couldn’t receive in the lecture hall.

“You kind of form a relationship with them, even though you don’t see them,” said Leigh Hayes of Bridgton, who has attended all of the expeditions.

“I’ve gone on a couple of walks with another group,” said Joan Lundin of Hollis, who was taking her premiere trip. “I just find it fascinating.”

McGreavy said the LEA has no official management plan, but hopes to develop one over the next one to two years.

“Right now, we’re not really at a stage beyond where we can say what animals are using the preserve,” she said.