SOME BASIC FACTS
- Surface area: just under 1 acre
- Perimeter: approximately 270 meters
- Fed by: groundwater/overland drainage.
- Maximum depth/length/width: ?
- Volume: ?
HISTORY
The pond was man-made circa 1972 and has been ecologically stable since then, fed by springs and runoff. Initially it had a gravel bottom, was roughly 50% fringed with cattails several feet thick, and early on was stocked with bluegill and trout. The bluegill are still there in good numbers, but the trout seem to have died out, and much of the gravel has been covered with mud/silt/organic matter. The cattails were lightly controlled for years, usually through pulling them by hand when they encroached on the popular swimming areas, until a family of muskrats moved in, and seem to have eliminated nearly all of the cattails before moving on. A small beach area was created in 2011 by dredging a small area, laying down synthetic mats to restrain growth, and covering the mats and a small portion of the shore with sand. Recent visitors include great blue herons (very welcome), Canada geese (less welcome) and water chestnut (extremely unwelcome — please pull them out if you see them!).
Water Chestnut (trapa natans) plant and seeds. If you see them, please remove them!
COMMON SPECIES
Plants
- Typha latifolia (common cattail or bulrush)
Fish
- Ctenopharyngodon idella (grass carp or white amur)
- Lepomis macrochirus (bluegill)
Birds
- Agelaius phoeniceus (red-winged blackbird)
- Branta Canadensis (Canada goose)
Reptiles
- Chrysemys picta (painted turtle)
- Chelydra serpentina (snapping turtle)
Mammals
- Ondatra zibethicus (muskrat)
I can’t remember too much about the original building of the pond, but on a social note, I can say that Michael Meltsner and Heli Spiegel Meltsner left the community shortly after it was built. They said it looked like a “crater on the moon” and would never look like much else. They were one of the original families to inaugurate The Community and had experienced a number of disappointments in the inception, one of which was that the path of the road through the community was changed from its original route to bisect the site they had chosen, completely changing its character. And the pond did indeed look a little like a crater when it was first dug, with huge piles of clay soil and rocks surrounding it and a very Ganges-like liquid content. The Meltsner site was bought by the Jonas’ and later sold to the Rosenbergs.