Flood

Flood

December 21, 2013

And then it rained … and rained … and rained …

The abundant rain, combined with a great deal of snow and ice melt (after a long, substantial winter storm), created deep water throughout our area.  Since the ground was still frozen below the surface, most of the water could not percolate down, and so the it could only flow across the surface, creating flash floods.

Cottonwood Pond took on a completely different look, as is evident in the above photo.

I did not walk down to the pond.  Had I ventured there, it would have required tall rubber boots, and it would have looked the same at close range – lots of water and lots of muck.

The creek had overflowed its banks more than I had ever seen it do before.  It looked like a great amount of “Cambric tea” (a cup with plenty of milk and a little black tea) had been spilled, and the spilled edges were seeping outward across the table.

Cottonwood Pond had seeped over its edges, too.  Water running downhill was still filling it on that day, at both sides of the pond.  The “seep” (on the left side in the photo) was more of a connecting pool between the pond and creek.  It was as if a great cup of Cambric tea had tipped a bit to the side and spilled out, the excess flowing away and catching into a long fold in the tablecloth.

Even “little pond”, just behind the root ball on the left, was much broader, and indistinguishable from the other muddy, milky pools.

Water flowing from the upper right, meandering along the slope, was rushing into the pond.  In fact, a few days later I went walking there, and found a small creek where I do not normally see a creek.  It was adding a great deal more volume to the pond as it entered from below the fallen tree that extends over the creek.

All of this influx of muddy water, as it flowed downhill toward the pond, through rotting leaves and branches, and through the crumbly soil beneath them, would be bringing fresh nutrients to the pond.  It may also have been bringing very small organisms that live in the litter and loose soil, as well as fungi and bacteria.  Of course, some was also flowing out of the pond on the other side, but I think that most of the influx would stay in the pond.  I wondered how this would affect life in Cottonwood Pond in the coming seasons.

I thought of how Cottonwood Pond had become Cottonwood Puddle during the summer after a long dry spell in the weather.  No precipitation had been coming in.  Here, on this day, it was just the opposite.  The pond was not only receiving plenty of precipitation directly, but was receiving input from it surroundings.  It was being freshened, nourished and refilled.

What will this mean for the future of the pond?  I look forward to what will happen at Cottonwood Pond in the year 2014.