by Middleton Stream Team | Nov 30, 2013 | Water Closet Blog
In this weeks Water Closet, Pike writes about the Atlantic White Cedars which are fast disappearing from the Middleton landscape. Their demise has been primarily the result of drowning from the rising water behind man made dams and beaver impoundments. Readers might be interested to learn that these cedars are the exclusive home to the Hessel’s Hairstreak butterfly. Also, the decay resistant cedars once fallen can be preserved by the acidic peaty swamp water in which they lie and have in some cases been mined decades later for their timber. Its an interesting story that reflects the cycle of life in ways that we don’t ordinarily think of.
by Middleton Stream Team | Nov 19, 2013 | Water Closet Blog
In this weeks Water Closet, Pike reminisces about his time in the Philippines while serving in the Navy. The massive destruction that Typhoon Haiyan wreaked on the Philippines affects Pike in a personal way having been there and having seen the people and villages that would have suffered at the hands of this storm. Pike reminds us that there is a warning here for us also to prepare for storms of greater intensity as the Atlantic warms.
by Middleton Stream Team | Nov 14, 2013 | Water Closet Blog
In this weeks Water Closet, Pike writes about one of the newer beaver dams that can be seen from the Middleton Stream Team’s Park at Logbridge Road. as well as other beaver dams in Middleton, including one impressive structure that is 250 feet long and six feet high in places that backs up water for one half mile.. Not only are these industrious creatures builders, but also engineers in that the Logbridge Rd. dam has been bowed upstream for strength.
by Middleton Stream Team | Nov 5, 2013 | Water Closet Blog
In this weeks Water Closet, Pike talks about the Middleton Stream Team’s annual fall hike in which walkers aged 5-82 walked up and down a three mile path which took them through a bog. Pike discusses how the terrain was formed by retreating glaciers which scoured the landscape down to bedrock and then how plants returned from the south. Depressions in the rock filled with water and plants grew on the edges and in time generations died and along with the sediment from run off filled in some of the poorly drained lakes and ponds to become bogs.
by Middleton Stream Team | Oct 29, 2013 | Water Closet Blog
In this weeks Water Closet, Pike forwards another great story from Arthur McKee who witnessed a great blue heron feeding on a Pacific giant gopher. its hard to imagine a heron which we normally think of as feeding on fish swallowing a live giant gopher which continues its struggle to survive as it surges down the neck and gullet of this magnificent bird. I found the story fascinating and I think you will also.
