Peak Foliage

Peak Foliage
October on Preston Pond

Brief History of Preston Pond

Born from glaciers about 13,500 years ago, the original pond was only what is now the wider north end. Probably about 10,000 years ago, as the modern forest started to take root, beavers colonized the pond and expanded it (old dams are under the water surface).

With the arrival of Europeans in New York and coastal New England, a vigorous fur trade grew in the 17th Century. Beavers are particularly vulnerable to trapping since they are easy to find and they were wiped out by the 18th Century. With no beavers to maintain the dams, Preston Pond drained and appears on 18th and 19th Century maps as only the smaller original glacial north end.


Reintroduction in the 1920's and 1930's led to beavers recolonizing Preston Pond. By chance, they arrived the same year my grandfather bought the property in 1946. Ever since then, beavers have lived unmolested (by humans) on Preston Pond - until February 2016. They have never caused flooding problems or over-eaten the surrounding forest stand to the point that they abandoned the pond. Their population has doubtlessly had its ups and downs, but they have managed their affairs here for the last 70 years as beavers did for millions of years: on their own, despite some of their top predators having been exterminated by humans.

[In talking to members of our family, there have been two brief intervals in the past when the beavers were absent: First, in '71/'72 (I was preoccupied with high school, track and cross-country so didn't notice or recall and the reason is unknown) and second in '83/'84 after a major dam break. At least one adult was killed in the outwash. I was living in NYC at the time and a new father and again, had forgotten that as well].





Friday, April 1, 2016

Global Warming - or the New Ice Age?!

Our bizarre winter has been followed by a freaky weird spring. New species of wildlife and fishing records have fallen even before fishing season opens. One might think this is all global warming related, but many of the new species are from above the Arctic Circle!

 First were the caribou swimming across Preston Pond (north end) at dawn!

Then my buddy Dan caught the first ever Sheefish and Dog Salmon (east shore near the ledge) he released the salmon: we ate the Sheefish ... ah, for breakfast. Yeah, that's it!).

 Then! (as we should have anticipated with all those fish), a Grizzly charged!

 Nothing I couldn't handle, but still - quite a day, and it isn't even 10 am yet (oh! the mismatched boots are because these two guys stole one of my neoprene canoe boots a while before).


Happy April All!

 (photos are actually from three of my canoe expeditions: Labrador - top - and the last two in Alaska. And the two young black bears did really steal one of my boots - and hung around my camps for two or three days (I couldn't move far due to dense alders and heavy rain). 
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