Cottonwood Pond: Things Falling Down

Things Falling Down

April 21, 2019

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.”

Stephen Hawking

“Nobody escapes age and gravity.”

Harlan Ellison

The sun was intensely bright that day, shining through a woodland that was quickly greening. The light accentuated the open spaces that still existed between trees.

The sunlight glinted and sparkled off of every spot or stripe of water. Everything was emphasized by this – it was all more well defined by the light's etching of water courses and edges.

The main Creek (bottom) and Temporary Creek #1 (top) running into the Swampy Spot (left) next to Cottonwood Pond

Looking down toward Cottonwood Pond - sunlight making "little pond" and the Seep visible

It was much easier to see the action of water, the flow of water down, and down, taking little detours, gouging out new paths.

Outside of the Inlet, where water sometimes rushes into Cottonwood Pond

Where the Seep enters the Creek, carrying excess water from Cottonwood Pond

The sun illuminates the Isthmus and "little pond", between the Root Ball and the Two-Trunk White Ash.

"little pond", as seen from the northwest, toward the fallen Cottonwood

Gravity and force pull the water along, downstream, ever moving, to lower elevations. Our little Creek winds around the land, loops around elsewhere, then enters the small River Deshee. Water from that river finds its way down to the Wabash River, then to the Ohio River, then to the mighty Mississippi River, and eventually down to the deep lowlands of Louisiana, into the Gulf of Mexico.

All of that shining water in our woods does that.

Downstream

And all of that water action, pulling down, also pulls down other things by yanking them downward with force or wearing away at their foundations over time until they lose their stability.

Looking down the Mayapple-filled slope toward CP, where sunlight shines off of the water all around - rushing water has been working on the whole area

Exposed roots of the Root Ball Bottom, after much of the attached soil had fallen to the Mud Pile below

Exposed roots at the base of the Root Ball Bottom have been worn smooth, sometimes into new, interesting shapes, by the frequent action of running water

Chunks of root fragments fallen from the Root Ball have partially dammed the Isthmus (where water flows between the main and "little pond"), changing the flow

One down!!

At "little pond", I discovered that one of the tree saplings that grow out of the Root Ball had fallen over, across the Isthmus (right).

Would this happen with the rest of them as the Root Ball erodes more over time?

A closer look - it is an American Hornbeam/Blue Beech sapling - will it still live and grow in this position?

A close look at the root system of the fallen sapling - it's easy to see how water has eaten away at the foundation of mud on the Root Ball Top, weakening the sapling's hold.

A young Boxelder next to the fallen Cottonwood Trunk, near "little pond" ...

… and the base of that young Boxelder, roots becoming more exposed at water pushes away soil.

What will become of this little tree? Trees like Cottonwood and Boxelder that grow in very wet areas tend to have shallower root systems.

The base of the Two-Trunk White Ash, next to the Isthmus, is almost consistently in water, something that used to be only occasional.

What will cause the end of it first - rushing water, or the dreaded Ash Borer?

The dynamics of the whole ecosystem are affected by every one of these changes, all which have succumbed to gravity.

Evidence is all over – things that have succumbed to gravity in the past. All of those have experienced the changes and reshaping of decay. And that decay has brought forth that which defies gravity, which is compelled reach upward and outward.