Maple and Vernal Pool

This is a maple tree by a vernal pool off Clark Road in Shirley. The area was developed into the Meadows housing tract. I think the maple was chopped down when the vernal pool was turned into a detention pond to help with drainage problems which certainly were considerable in the spring in that neck of the woods. During the conservation commission hearings on this project I found a caddis fly larva case in the center of the pool's basin. The pool was dry at this point. The case showed it held water long enough in the spring for amphibian breeding to take place, and according to my documents was sufficient to certify it as a vernal pool. The commission felt it was too late in the hearings process for this to be taken into account. Later, after the hearings were over, I found some amphibian eggs of some kind. It wasn't a natural structure. It was dug by Dick Hatch many years ago. But it did seem to be functioning as a vernal pool, perhaps marginally.

April 6, 1996