May (2014)
5/16/2014
Invested
5/12/2014
What We Meant
April (2014)
4/22/2014
Earth In Mind
February (2014)
2/17/2014
Looking Ahead
January (2014)
November (2013)
October (2013)
September (2013)
May (2013)
April (2013)
4/24/2013
Advancement!
March (2013)
February (2013)
Best of... #3
3/8/2002
While Chuck is away on vacation, we're bringing back the most popular Chuck's Corners. This one takes us on a hike to a vernal pool.

A recent reference of vernal pools evoked squeals of interest from some remote quadrants of my readership, so I took a stroll north up Ragged this afternoon after confering with Land Use Manager Dave Pilla. My directions were clear: Mud Pond Trail north to Carr Trail ("Dale's Trail" to some,) thence north on Derek's Trail to a stone wall.

(Built 170 years ago to contain sheep, these walls criss-cross our woodlot extensively.)

Cross the wall and stray northwest till you come to a pool. Well, it was easier than it sounds.

At this time of year, you hear a vernal pool way before you see it. The riot of wood frogs quacking like ducks made my discovery easy. I only regretted their sudden silence at my intrusion (something about a man with a camera?). The pool is magnificent. About 100 feet by 40 with maybe 2 feet of icy clear water over a thick layer of maple and oak leaves. To qualify as a vernal pool, a body of water must be temporary, have no outlet stream (and therefore, no fish) and host one or more vernal pool "indicator species": fairy shrimp, wood frogs, and salamanders (spotted, Jefferson, blue-spotted, and marbled) that come to the pool to breed. If the wood frogs and peepers command sonic attention, it is the 6-inch salamanders...silently descending on the pool en masse on rainy nights...that reward swampwalkers with flashlights.
Wildflowers enjoy sunlight in the middle of Mud Pond Trail.