On Valentines Day as Wayne and I were walking the dogs, I spotted a patch of pink snow and so waded over to check it out. Upon closer inspection I realized that we had happened upon a kill site. The snow was depressed in the center and surrounded by a variety of tracks. In its entirety, it was only about two or three feet long and wide. There was blood, rabbit fur and rabbit pellets dispersed over the area. I saw what was possibly entrails at the bottom of the depression, but I couldn't confirm that because several animals had defecated and urinated on top of it.
I understand that I'm a bit of an outlier when it comes to my level of interest in these sorts of discoveries. I find them intriguing, worthy of study, a story to be told and most assuredly there are photographs to be taken for my Facebook album entitled Carrion. Wayne, unlike myself, prefers to walk on down the road while encouraging me to disengage. How could I with so many questions to be answered?
I feel that it's important to reiterate here, that it's not death that fascinates me, if that were the case, I think that I would feel the same when finding some poor creature who perished by automobile as I do when finding deer bones in the woods. It is not death but instead the thought of nature having played out as it should and here it is on full display. This animal has a story to tell and I am interested in reading it.
Since Wayne had no shared interest, I had to reach out to those that would understand my need to know. I first texted seven photographs that contained as much detail as I could capture to my daughter Helen and her boyfriend Kirk who both work in Wildlife. I then asked them why animals had defecated on the site, what exactly was it they were doing and could they tell what kinds of animals had done it?
Surprisingly, they didn't immediately respond, so I dropped Wayne's phone into my jacket pocket and caught up to him. We were on our way to Scott Road to satisfy another question that has nagged me for a long time. As for Wayne? Wayne thinks that it would be better to leave the answer alone.
"Omg why is this happening to me emoji emoji emoji emoji emoji emoji emoji emoji...Ahahahaaaa I'm traumatized!" This is what happens when mom accidentally texts the wrong daughter who is just waking up due to a three hour time difference. Apparently Kayden wasn't in the same head space as I was. I wish that I could claim that it is a rare occasion that my head is in one place while everybody else's is in another. Truth be told, I get into a lot of hot water over this.
Here is the thing, I was walking to Scott Road because Newton Brook is noted by the Deerfield River & Lower Connecticut River Tactical Basin Plan as a distributary for Lily Pond and I wanted to see exactly where pond meets brook. Wayne on the other hand, was walking to Scott Road because it was Valentines Day, the dogs had to be walked and he is a good guy. The implications of this revelation (not the one about Wayne, the one about the brook) is that Lily Pond is not a true kettle pond. To quote my eldest daughter, "Omg why is this happening?"
This is not an easy topic to look at in a town that takes considerable pride in hosting a rare kettle pond, so why even bring it up? I bring it up because in order to address the issues facing the pond, everyone must understand exactly what the pond is and is not. Understandably, I wanted to do the topic justice so I began by rechecking watershed maps which seemed to confirm that Newton Brook begins in the wetlands at the edge of Silver Lane flows into Lily Pond and exits at the south end by Scott Road.
I searched old reports that claimed extraordinary things like," In the westerly part of town ( Lily Pond) covers about 100 acres. Pickerel, Pout, and some other fish are found in its waters." (1891)* I discovered that Newton Brook isn't even mentioned in the same report, "Broad Brook, Upper and Lower Salmon Brook, Island Meadow Brook, and Bedling's Brook are the principal streams and all are small."* Addendum: 1869 map which includes Vernon's Lily Pond.
Vernon's 2018 Town Plan states on page 42 under water resources, "The largest surface water body in the town is Lily Pond at approximately 40 acres, with a watershed area of about 400 acres."** The only specifically named rivers and streams in the plan are the Connecticut River and Broad Brook, all others mentioned in the report are referred to as, "several critical tributaries."**
Never one to shrug off people with hands on knowledge, I felt it was only right to include it here. I was told by a resident recently that the 2020 Tactical Plan is wrong, that the natural flow in that area is into the pond as evidenced by the fact that the normal water level of the pond is three feet below the level of the fire pond there. This resident was citing the contour lines on an interactive state map viewer and additionally mentioned a small stream that runs into the pond there. He also wrote that a Scott Road resident told them, "that outlet is dry as a cork...that outlet exists only because in the 19th century there was an attempt to drain Lily Pond...which was unsuccessful." I have spoken with many other residents in town of which I am sure would agree.
When a recent conversation about my blog on Lower Salmon Brook turned to Lily Pond, Jerry Unaitis wrote an online comment, "I have the original deed from 1830 or so and it shows a brook coming from Lily Pond running through the field behind the house I grew up in. I don't know when Mr. Scott put the dam in but that stopped it," He also mentioned that he would try and locate the deed. I am hopeful that other residents will contribute what they know about this subject.
The Tactical Plan in question states: Lily Pond is a natural on-stream pond on Newton Brook. The pond is the only Outwash Plain Pondshore natural community in Vermont and hosts over a dozen species of rare aquatic plants. Downstream of the pond Newton Brook is impaired for nutrients and sediment due to agricultural impacts. The steep eastern shore has a 50-foot riparian buffer yet the levels of Total Phosphorus in the pond are high. Protection of this rare community is a priority.(pp 76)*** It is also stated in the report that Lily Pond's low PH is a concern.*** There is a priority restoration focus on Newton Brook that addresses "nutrients & sediment from agricultural inputs."(pp 43-46)*** I want to mention at this point that this report is 235 pages, much of which is too technical for my understanding; but Vernon is mentioned often including the Hatchery, Broad Brook, Roaring Brook WMA, Central Park and Black Gum Swamps. There is a lot of praise for each of these mentions.
To get back to my conversation about the rabbit kill site, Helen later explained to me that animals will "mark" their territory and most likely these visitors were letting others know that it belonged to them. As for my eldest daughter Kayden, later in the day she texted, "I still need to bleach my brain after this morning." It just goes to show that people can look at the same scenario and come away with varying thoughts on it. No amount of my enthusiasm, talking or texting about it is going to change Wayne or Kayden's opinion on the subject. For my part, I've decided not to post those pictures here. -Norma Manning
Taken while standing on Lily Pond looking towards Scott Road
Same view but taken further back
Open water visible at the base of the rotten tree on the right as shown above.
View of the tree line from Scott Road where Newton Brook reportedly flows away from Lily Pond
Taken from Scott Road looking towards Lily Pond
Ripples indicate that the stream to the left is flowing into the fire pond. This flow appears to be coming from a small stream flowing down the hill on the left.
Closeup of stream on the right. The same one shown in the first three pictures.
Picture showing a plowed drive leading to the property located to the left of the brook. The drive crosses through the stream that is also shown in pictures 5 & 6
Looking east on Scott Road opposite of Lily Pond and the brook, the bed is evident, but I was unable to see flowing water.
Addendum (4/14/2024), Here is the link to the town map of Vernon Water Resources which shows a brook connected at the north end of the pond and emanating from the wetlands beyond Lily Pond road. At the south end of the pond where the fire pond is retained at Scott road, the map shows that wetlands span from the pond to where Newton Brook begins. However, Google Earth when magnified labels Newton brook connected to the south end of the pond. We know that Newton Brook flows south to Massachusetts where it empties into the Connecticut River. I added this addendum here as there continues to be conversation surrounding the topic and some maps have been updated to reflect this.
*The Towns of Windham County, Vermont Historical Gazetteer volume V, Vernon
**Town Plan Vernon, VT 2018
***Deerfield River & Lower Connecticut River Tactical Basin Plan
Assessment of the Condition of Vermont Waters, Department of Environmental Conservation
State of Vermont 2020, 303 (d) List of Impaired Waters Part A. Impaired Surface Waters in Need of TMDL, Approved by EPA Region 1
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