Bare Pond in Summer

 By Richard B. Primack

 

 

“There is no plateau on which Nature rests in mid-summer, but she instantly commences the descent to winter.” Henry David Thoreau in his Journal.

 

 

Bare Pond, a vernal pond in the Webster Woods in Newton, is a breeding site for yellow-spotted salamanders, wood frogs, and other amphibians. During the summer, the pond dries out completely. Over the course of the past eight months, I have been surveying the pond and taking various measurements to better understand its dynamic nature.  

 

Photo 1: Bare Pond dries out in summer. 

 

 

Photo 2: The depth of the pond can be measured using the water marks on the trees that grow in the pond. 

 

Photo 3: An aquatic moss, most likely the variable hook moss (Drepanocladus aduncus), grows on the ground of the dried out pond. 

  

Photo 4: An old stone wall, likely from the early 1800s, runs through the pond.