Woods Winter Floods

Sunday Feb 6 late in the day I went to see how the Woods were faring with the melting snow.

I walked in the SW entrance and found the Western Wash draining the Lloyd Noble parking lot was running full. At the Elm Bridge the water was a couple feet deep, just below the blue blazed log on the bridge. Walking south along the new South Creek Trail water depth was over the 17 " top of my knee boots and I had to walk a bit west of the trail.

Water had flooded the 100 m long ragweed delta stretching north from the south central boundary; but did not extend to Barney Jct. West the water extended up the wash toward the Beaver Dam but had not reached it. Along the south boundary water drained out towards the main south culvert under the service road. At the culvert it had backed up and had flooded back into the Woods in a 10 " deep pool extending back towards the Dune. Need to clear the vegetation and recent slash/ debris partially blocking the culvert.

Across the flooded area there were scores or hundreds of robins busily foraging in the shallow moving water. I wondered what they could be finding. I also wondered what was happening in the soil, around the roots of the trees, around their mycorrhizal caps with this first flooding water in seven months. What was happening to soil fauna earthworms, insects, mites, millipedes, microarthropods etc..

Southeast of Carpenter's post on the SE corner of the East Pond I found a beautiful dead armadillo in the snow. It looked like it had just died hours earlier. I was surprised at how pink all of its undersides and limbs were. I could see the track it had bulldozed to where it lay, perhaps vainly seeking food under the snow.