For my alternate place, I chose to visit Gillett Pond in Richmond. This Pond is well known in the Richmond/Huntington area, however, you can’t swim in it because of leeches in the Pond. It is common for residents in the winter to shovel off a section and skate or play pond hockey.
You may remember Richmond as the town where Walt is looking for the wooly mammoth…
Richmond is about 30 minutes from Burlington, headed south on the highway. While visiting this spot, I found some really interesting things that I would never have found in my phenology spot in Jericho.
Gillett Pond backs up to my boyfriend’s family’s property so I took this old logging road that they use to get down to the Pond.Once I got to the bottom of the path I found this beech tree that was still hanging on to it’s leaves. It’s snowed here multiple times and the day I went it was about 46 degrees.Near this beech tree, I started looking for bird’s nest remains and I did notice a couple. This is a really bad photo but the larger chunk of dark stuff is what I think is a bird’s nest.There are some ferns and small plants that are mostly dead here. This area has been cleared specifically because of people launching boats and walking around the Pond which is probably why there are these plants here and not in many other places around the Pond. Down at the Pond, there is this info box with a paper informing visitors about Gillett Pond. There is also a sign that says “Save the Pond.” The Pond has been subject to a lot of contention recently. As I was doing some research, I came across the Friends of Gillett Pond website which has lots of information about the wildlife and the history of the Pond. Apparently, the current dam, pictured later, is at high risk of giving out and draining Gillett Pond. I’ve been here multiple times and never knew the history of it or the potential future of it, so this was really interesting to find out.The day that I visited the Pond it was raining all day and was about 46 degrees. This meant that there was some fog in the area rolling off of Robbins Mountain behind the Pond. This is the main section of the stone wall dam that is still here. Apparently in July 2013 there was a high-water event that flooded the dam and took out a majority of it. These stone walls have been here since the 1800’s when there was an old mill that was built downstream at the Huntington Gorge and Gillett Pond was used as the reservoir to run the mill. Usually, the water level in the Pond is much higher, closer to the level of the grassy area just under the tree. This would mean that the area I was standing in was usually under water. This is the other side of the dam, closest to the road. Gillett Pond has lots of exposed bedrock and there is a large exposed rock further down the dam which is where the water flows out of the Pond.Just on the edge of the shore was this pile of shells. This could have been here from an animals meal, or it could be remnants of the crushed shells that used to be underwater, just being exposed with the low lake levels. I also found a tire and another smaller pile of shells in the tire. This is one of the shells cleaned off a little bit. Let me know if you know what these are!Also on my journey, we found what we think is an owl pellet. This is from when owls eat their prey, bones, fur, and all, and then regurgitate the bones and fur and anything else they can’t digest. It was raining and wet on the day I visited so I didn’t dig through it to confirm whether it was an owl pellet or not. Also using my tracking skills (which are super limited and almost non-existent) I found this track which I think is a coyote track. This had to have been pretty recent since it is likely that this hasn’t been muddy for very long. I found another track, which looked more like a dog print . There are many dogs in the area that roam freely and so this is definitely possible. I also found this track, and similarly to the last one this looks like a dog print. Just to the right of the stone wall of the dam is a small raised area with some stones in it. I’m not sure if this used to be a shed or some kind of foundation, or maybe the rocks were moved here later for another purpose. Hiking a bit around the Pond there is a deer trail that leads up the hill towards the back of the Pond, away from the road. Picture featuring my boyfriend’s black lab, Bridger. Looking up the hill from the deer path you can see the abundance of paper birches. There are a few conifers sprinkled in there but not like the next picture. Taken in the same spot as the last photo, just looking down the hill this time. There is a clear forest change from the abundance of paper birches to the abundance of conifers. I believe that most of the conifers are hemlocks. And just up the hill, I found some mushrooms!
Comparing Gillett Pond to My Phenology Spot
Well, since the two spots are only about 30 minutes apart, I don’t expect them to be much different from each other. The forest composition and the wildlife are definitely different. My phenology spot is in a very busy and crowded neighborhood where there is a lot of human impact in the area. Not unlike Centennial Woods, my phenology spot is natural, but is often used by humans for walking or other outdoor activities and therefore doesn’t get much time untouched by noise and humans. Gillett Pond, however, is very quiet. As seen in the video, there aren’t many busy roads or high traffic areas. The day I visited was the day after Thanksgiving and the Christmas tree farm down the road did provide a lot of traffic to the road. Because Gillett Pond is much quieter and less frequently disturbed, it is easier to notice the wildlife in the area, or see their remnants and clues that they had been here. Further down the dirt road on a rainy afternoon walk I did see three dead deer, that I decided not to picture. The deer plus the owl pellet, and coyote prints were super cool finds and all indicative of the wildlife that call this area, home.
Many of the human impacts are similar. There is a canoe as well as some hockey nets that were set aside next to the Pond. The tire and other trash show human impacts. The charred wood shows the history of the area, being used as a potential campsite or just campfire location in the past. The stone wall, road, and culvert all display how humans have changed the landscape to better benefit them, instead of leaving nature to run its course.
The history of Gillett Pond was interesting to me. As previously mentioned, I’ve been here before, but I never knew the history of it or the threat of its existence before now. I think it’s important to keep the waterbody for the many animals that do use it, but I don’t think that that should include replacing the current dam for industrial materials that aren’t any better for the Pond.
