Nature Conservancy, Home Brewed Edition

Nature Conservancy, Home Brewed Edition

I hope that I have demonstrated to some small degree that I love nature. All of nature in all scales from the subatomic to the universal. Yes, even ticks and mosquitoes have a place in a healthy ecosystem.

Over the years I have done much pro bono work for New Hampshire non-profits that actively promote and demonstrably help deal with human encroachment, the restoration of native species, and community outreach programs educating people about why biodiversity is worthy of protection.

Most of that is talk. It is easier to help out in coding and other activities than it is do actual restoration of one's own land to a likeness of a pre-agricultural wilderness. I have been working on this project for over a decade, and now my efforts are beginning to display hints of positive developments.

In the image below, there are clues that I may be on the right track. The little water flowing over the boulder and into the pool was shot in late August 2014. This little brook used to completely dry up in July. I have really tried to be a good steward on my little piece of the earth. In 2004 another party bought the large parcel of land behind me. My new neighbor asked if there was anything I would like done in the back of my property. I was very hesitant to ask if he could bulldoze me out a shallow depression to serve as a water basin - let us not call anything so frivolous a notion 'a pond' - but ask I did. He was happy to do so.

He was very aware of my love for my little brook, and even put a small opening at the outlet end in order to feed into my brook. Now that is cool. Now I have recognized, and hence protected, wetland status(!!!!!), and the *ahem* 'shorelines' look like a proper fresh water marsh.

Other than dragging the bottom of the basin thee times per year to keep the weed growth down, it is entirely maintenance free. It is now home to much amphibian and insect life that would befit a proper pond. My little marshy thing also attracts larger forms of life, such as fowls, and mammals. No moose as yet, but many a deer can be spotted having a drink.

I should note that the existence of so many tasty swimming, hopping, and crawling things, have attracted more predatory species than I would have thought possible in such a short time. This too, is part of the nature, and enough toads and leopard frogs appear in my gardens every year to let me know that things are seemingly in balance.

The bonus is that my little brook now runs year round.