RUMFORD –  In November 2006, the Dixfield-area school district ran into a snag when trying to buy land in Peru for a new elementary school. A vernal pool held up the $14 million project until an agreement was reached about how to protect it.

Vernal pools are small bodies of water that fill with spring rain and usually dry up by summer’s end.

An important breeding habitat for fairy shrimp, spotted and blue salamanders and wood frogs, the pools teem with animal and plant life, providing food for several wildlife species.

In September 2007, under the Natural Resource Protection Act, the Maine Legislature voted to protect a subset of vernal pools called “significant vernal pools.”

These pools are identified based on egg-mass abundance of key species such as those listed above and the presence of threatened or endangered critters.

The law states that before affecting a significant vernal pool or developing land within 250 feet of it, you must get a permit from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

“You can’t just decide to build your house there,” said Aram Calhoun, a University of Maine professor of wetland ecology and a Maine Audubon wetlands scientist. “You discuss with DEP what the impacts are going to be and the best way to minimize those contacts.”

Calhoun, UMaine, other state agencies and private consultants developed the Maine Vernal Pool Project to clarify misunderstandings by working with towns to locate and identify significant vernal pools.

Using infrared aerial photography and trained volunteers, the pool project gives each participating town a database of vernal pools that can be remotely identified and assessed.

Calhoun said it will help landowners identify natural resources on their property that will require permits for alterations.

Now in its second year, the community-based conservation project has been joined by Wayne, Readfield, Topsham, Brunswick, Harpswell, Freeport, Yarmouth, Windham, Cumberland, Scarborough, Falmouth and Orono.

Four more towns want in next year.

Western Maine towns, however, will either have to wait until funding can be found and research completed, or they can begin the work themselves by going to the Web site at www.umaine.edu/vernalpools/.

Additionally, by next fall, a step-by-step manual called the “Maine Municipal Guide to Vernal Pool Mapping and Conservation” will be published to lead towns through the process.

However, because aerial mapping misses up to 30 percent of vernal pools because of forest canopies, landowners are responsible for identifying vernal pools on their property.

“So, there will be pools missing and, if landowners in any of those towns have vernal pools, but they didn’t get a letter requesting permission, they can write to the town planning office and request to have the pool assessed and we’ll be happy to add them on,” Calhoun said.

The database can help with open space planning and conservation among different natural resources, he said.

“You can’t do that unless you have a big, spatial picture of where everything is,” he said.

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