Walden Pond

 By Richard B. Primack

Recent fluctuations in the water level of Walden Pond have renewed discussions of what causes these 6-10 year cycles of filling and draining of the pond.

“Whether regularly or not, and within what period, nobody knows, though, as usual, many pretend to know,” Thoreau wrote of the phenomenon in Walden.

 

Photo 1: A few years ago, the water level was extremely low. Last spring, it was very high. Photo by RBP.

 

Walden Pond State Park officials, and many other people with interests in the pond, are also struggling with how to balance protecting the health of the pond and its surrounding park, and providing a quality experience for park visitors. This is becoming increasingly challenging due to increasing numbers of visitors, lower water quality, and more frequent bacterial outbreaks leading to beach closures. 

 

Photo 2: High densities of swimmers at Walden Pond. From Yankee Magazine.

 

In response, the state is planning to add a new bathhouse next to the beach, which will hopefully reduce the level of pollution in the water. In addition, thousands of new trees and shrubs will be planted to reduce erosion and runoff.  

 

Photo 3: The new bathhouse being planned. From the Concord Bridge.

 

If this effort is not sufficiently effective, restrictions on the number of park visitors and swimmers will have to be considered. 

 

These topics are discussed in two recent articles in the Concord Bridge:

 

https://concordbridge.org/index.php/2024/12/10/new-bathhouse-seen-as-key-step-in-curbing-damage-to-walden-pond/

 

https://concordbridge.org/index.php/2024/12/10/on-walden-pond-exhilaration-solitude-and-communing-with-nature/

Visit to Wroclaw, Poland

 By Richard B. Primack

 

“The way you spend Christmas is far more important than how much.” Henry David Thoreau

 

 

During the last week of November, I visit Wroclaw, Poland for a conference titled “Building Bridges.” During the conference, I was inducted into the Academia Europaea, the European academic society that put on the conference.

 

Figure 1: “Building Bridges.”

 

 My fellow ecology colleagues and I went to the meeting together.

 

Figure 2: My colleagues Alessandro Chiarucci, Andras Baldi, and Carlo Rondinini.

 

I presented a talk on publishing in international journals to grad students at the University of Wroclaw.

Figure 3: Sylwia Wierzcholska and students at the University of Wroclaw.

 

Wroclaw is famous for having hundreds of statues of dwarves around the city, demonstrating the independent spirit of the people and their willingness to stand up to the government. 

Figure 4: This dwarf is on the edge of the Love Bridge, telling couples not to put locks on the bridge.

 

Mistletoes are surprisingly abundant on trees around the city.

Figure 5: A tree we saw with lots of mistletoes.