Reminiscence

Reminiscence

July 28, 2019

On that hot day in late July I finally got back into the woods, starting with a visit to Cottonwood Pond.

Pond??

Simply the fact that I ever called it a “pond” brings back memories.

When it happened – when that big Cottonwood fell and left a deep bowl that filled with water – I had hopes. I thought that maybe it would harbor life and go through evolutionary stages resulting in a big bowl of water teeming with a variety of aquatic plants and animals. It would be almost like a natural aquarium, but with direct influences from the environment all around it.

Well, I was right about the influences of the surrounding environment, though that didn't turn out the way I had thought (hoped?) it would. Instead, periods of heavy water flow (especially pronounced during the first half of this year) have pushed tons of sediment through the area. Some was pushed beyond the banks of the “pond”, but some settled, especially where chunks of fallen wood (from the Cottonwood's rotting roots) functioned as small dams.

There were very interesting changes to watch, though, as the area changed. Various types of plants appeared, and animal life. Last year, and especially this year, I could see that the deer were finally coming into the Cottonwood Pond area.

As I roamed the area on this day, I looked back in time, remembering how it once was. Everything changes while forces, through time, act upon them. But, like someone looking at photos of one's progeny as a small child, or thinking of how the old neighborhood was “back in the day”, I still wanted to reminisce about the earlier Cottonwood Pond, the one hardly anyone else got to see.

Here's a sketch I did in April of 2014 (a year after starting this blog). Here we are standing by the Creek (bottom of sketch), looking at the bottom of the Cottonwood's Root Ball, or root mass (which is the semi-circular structure near the top of the drawing), and the bowl of water below it. So much has changed. You can refer back to this drawing as we move along through the reminiscence, as well as to the next drawing that will appear.

On the right you can see the “Barkless Log” (probably a former Sugar Maple tree) stretching across toward the Root Ball. Below it the Inlet developed, a way for water to enter the main pond. Above it you can see the “Bent Blue Beech” (American Hornbeam, Muscle Tree). Stretching across the Creek, along the pond's edge, and then under the Barkless Log is the Very Rotten Log. Below the Root Ball, to the left, you see one Mud Pile developing.

Here's another view:

The Main Pond

It's hard to believe now, but I used to do depth measurements of this! The bowl of water was fairly consistent, with definite edges. The deepest part was the side closer to the Inlet, where rushing water entered and gouged at the pond's bottom.

Those were the days! It was even hard for me to reach to that deepest spot. So, I devised my Handy-Dandy-Depth-Measuring Device from an old broom handle, garden twine, a heavy, flattish rock, and a red twist-tie. The first measurement was taken on March 27, 2013. The deepest part measured 21 ½” deep. And, there was a dead Fox Squirrel in the pond.

To read all about it, go to:
https://cottonwoodpond.blogspot.com/2013/04/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html

The Main Pond on July 28, 2019, looking toward the Inlet – just mud on this day. The pond bed was dotted with tiny (but tall) Crawdad chimneys, worm trails, and tracks from my dog, Babette.

After that, I started taking water samples and also dipping into the water and mud to see what animal life I could find. I found a number of different macroorganisms (tadpoles, frogs, snails, leeches, an aquatic “earthworm”, and an aquatic larvae of a type of moth, water beetles, for example) as well as fascinating microorganisms (blue-green algae, Daphia, midge larvae, etc.). You can read all about it (and see some photos and drawings) by searching the Cottonwood Pond blog for titles containing words like “Sampling”, “Little Critters”, and “Scoping”.

The same view, but on a map I drew in 2015:

This map shows the deep part of the pond, Mud Pile #1, Mud Pile #2, the Cove, and one sapling growing from the Root Ball.

First, Mud Pile #1 started forming from soil that had fallen from the Root Ball. Then, Mud Pile #2 started to form at the southeast end. Plants grew on the Mud Piles, diversifying the habitat. Animals of various sizes burrowed into the Root Ball, and spiders stretched webs across burrow entrances. The habitat became even more diverse. A Sugar Maple had taken root at the top edge of the Root Ball and quickly grew into a sapling. One day, my friend Cherie and I found a Northern Water Snake wrapped around it.

A Visit to the Pond with Cherie – May 24, 2014: https://cottonwoodpond.blogspot.com/2014/11/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html

The Root Ball, Mud Pile, and Main Pond from the north

The bottom side of the Root Ball

The Cove

One day I noticed a little opening that had developed at the bottom of the Root Ball, starting near the southeast end. On another day, I detected a spot of light! The action of water from both sides of the Root Ball eventually carved a hole all the way through, which I dubbed The Cove. One day, I watched a Green Frog hop through! So, then I knew the Cove had become a wildlife thru-way. When there was water in it, I imagined a tiny boat going through, its riders seeing the Cove as a huge cavern opening, revealing a new world on the other side.

https://cottonwoodpond.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-cove.html

Over time I observed the Cove enlarge across the bottom. But, as more soil fell from the Root Ball the Mud Piles grew taller and wider, then joined in the middle, obliterating the Cove.

Looking down the Trunk to the Root Ball Top side of the former Cove

The Old Logs

Back in the day, the Very Rotten Log was not yet so rotten. I could use it for things. It still looked like a definite log (or, fallen tree), round and complete, though it was covered with moss in many places. I set things on top of it and leaned things against it when I did depth measurements, water sampling, and scoops to look for animal life. It held my side pack, sampling jars, and lenses. The Handy-Dandy-Depth-Measuring Device and my notebook and pen had a place to lean.

I used the Very Rotten Log to traverse the Creek to Cottonwood Pond. It held my weight without complaint back then and lent its support. I did not have to find a good-enough spot to jump the Creek.

Then came a time when the Very Rotten Log became so spongy that it squished up water with each of my careful steps. Later, I could feel it give under each step, and I quit using it to cross over. In time it became thinner, wetter, mossier, and supported more fungi that were helping to break down its wood. Finally, it broke. The broken-off section was pushed to the Creek side by rushing water as jagged Very Rotten Log ends stuck out above the Creek shore on either side.

Eventually, too, the ground-resting parts of the Very Rotten Log sunk into the soil, becoming part of it. Sections became indistinguishable from the ground. Then, only vague remnants, and memories of what was.

Shelf fungi growing on a leftover section of the Very Rotten Log, on the other side of the Creek

Very Rotten Log remnant near the Seep (not far from the Creek)

Somewhere in the middle of what was the Very Rotten Log - just pieces!

The last distinguishable section of the Very Rotten Log - next to the Young White Ash near the pond

Barely visible - the Very Rotten Log at its far (top) end

Where is it??

And the Bent Blue Beech (BBB on the map) that was rooted on one side of the Creek.

When the great Cottonwood fell, it caught this young, strong American Hornbeam (Blue Beech, Muscle Tree) and bent it over, arching it over the Inlet. When standing on the southeast end of Cottonwood Pond, I loved how this framed the whole scene with its gnarly Root Ball and shining water. On the other side of the Root Ball, the narrower end of the BBB stretched out and up, over the ground.

Over time I watched the little “suckers” grow from near the BBB sapling's base. Shelf mushrooms grew on the arched wood. It became evident that the once supple arched trunk had died and become brittle, and the quickly-growing suckers were taking its place. Then, one day, the arch snapped, and the Bent Blue Beech became the Broken Blue Beech. It still framed the view for awhile, but then gradually the two sections, one succumbing to gravity, pulled farther apart.

Another Blue Beech sapling, many-pronged, grows on top of the Cottonwood Trunk

A map I drew in 2015 - this time a view from the southeast - the football-shaped area in the middle is the Root Ball, with the Cottonwood's Trunk extending to the right

Then there's …

The Cottonwood Trunk

or, another Old Log, but a grand one.

What a grand thing it was, back in the day, still covered with it rough furrows of bark! The top half of the Trunk stretched (as of this date, it still does) across the low area and up the adjacent slope. At the top of the slope is a large, double-trunk Red Oak tree. The top of the Cottonwood, when it fell, wedged into the “v” between the Red Oak trunks.

Looking up the Trunk toward the Red Oak

On top of the slope - the top end of the Cottonwood tree in the "v" of the Red Oak

Mosses and lichens grew between bark fissures, just as when the tree was standing. As the Trunk faded from Life, though, fungi also took over. For a few years I found clusters of large Oyster mushrooms growing from the Trunk, with their dramatic, wavy caps and gills. If only I had been sure of what they were then, I could have feasted on them!

Bark pieces started falling off along most of the Trunk, revealing mycelia of fungi and fine roots of plants that were starting to grow from rotted wood. Various small wildlife traversed the smooth and bumpy sections, or lived in them. In winter there were Squirrel tracks on the snow-covered Trunk.

There came a time when all of the bark had fallen, leaving only some near the base to remind me how the whole tree had looked. Mosses and fungi then started from cracks in the wood and spread over the Trunk's surface. Some fallen bark pieces were swept away by rushing water. The rest stayed below the Trunk, turning to soil.

Moss and dark fungus

Then the bark fell from the Trunk's base, leaving me with only memories.

The base of the Cottonwood Trunk, and "little pond" as a puddle, on July 28, 2019

Where the Trunk stretches over the low area, just before the slope, there is a spot that always has had the largest opening. I used to simply duck my head to go through to the other side, near the Swampy Spot. Now there is much less space. To get through, I would need to crouch and waddle like a duck, or crawl through like a Raccoon. I don't know why this has happened, but I have two theories, and I believe it can be one of these, or a combination of both:

1. The top of the tree has disintegrated and settled further into the “v” of the Red Oak, making the rest of the Trunk sink further toward the ground along the slop and over the low area.
2. So much water has moved down Temporary Creek #1, through the Swampy Spot, and under the Trunk (then flowing to “little pond” and Temporary Creek #2) that it has deposited a great deal of silt, thickening the soil layer below and decreasing the space. Flooding would also add to this.

There are so many more places in the Cottonwood Pond area I could reminisce about – the Seep, the Creek, the Barkless Log, the Inlet, the Isthmus, the Swampy Spot, etc. - but these are the aspects that bring back the most memories.

There is constant change, of course, and abruptly at times. I look forward to the changes here at Cottonwood Pond. But, I can't help reliving the way it was during those earlier times.

“And it goes on and on, watching the river run
Further and further from things that we've done
Leaving them one by one … “

Watching the River Run by Loggins and Messina