A PBX Hike, The Warren Grove Wildfire 6 Months Later

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,692
4,863
Pines; Bamber area
All the painters who ever lived or are living could not make that come to life :D
Guy

Lotta life that nite! The way I feel after a big trip shower is indescribable. Good trip memories, hot shower, thoroughly relaxed, good food, good company, cold beer, a Phillies blunt, no work the next day....it doesn't get any better.
 

turtle

Explorer
Feb 4, 2009
653
214
a village...in the pines
Maybe Terry can work some magic with this one.

bobo.jpg



Scott, I don't do flip flops.....BUT I did paint pic of a beer bottle once. It was sitting on a table at the "Maple Inn" (I have a feeling you remember that place) with the lit bar sign behind it.....sometime in the 70's (don't ask)....and yes, I was legal, as if that was even a question..... :)

Thank you folks for your graciousness. I have always painted from my own photos or on site. Being part of this forum and witnessing the results of your explorations and observations is truly motivating. This site rocks. When I am stuck for ideas, I can be assured that your images will jump start my imspiration. Often a view of the world is more greatly appreciated when you see it through another's eyes. It was cold and snowy and cold and snowy and cold....and I was reading this thread. When I saw the photo I took a deep breath and could feel the freshness of the warm pine air in my lungs. I told Guy that I thought of places in the pines where one is so isoloated.....where you hear no sound, yet hear everything. Timing and the image caught me. We all have our own ways of expoloration. I thank you all for sharing.

Turtle
 

Spung-Man

Piney
Jan 5, 2009
1,000
729
65
Richland, NJ
www.researchgate.net
Blue Bent Pond

I Christened it "Marble Spung" as it is almost perfectly round.


Bob,

Many spungs have remarkably circular traces. This form likely relates back to the conditions the basins formed under as sparse tundra-barrens blowouts – cold, dry, and windy. Cold, nonglacial (i.e., periglacial) terrain is often characterized by symmetrical geometric shapes known as “patterned ground.” We know of at least three periods during the last 200,000 years that frozen ground (i.e., permafrost) was present across South Jersey. That is why some round spungs are chained together like pearls on a necklace. A favorite round spung is Blue Bent Pond in Mizpah, secreted by an incredibly thick, extensive, and nearly leathal barrier of greenbriar (Smilax):

http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.49216882127215&lng=-74.80382680892944&z=15&type=nj1930&gpx=

Bent is an almost obsolete English word for the curved portion of a rounded form, like that found in ancient timber-frame structures (e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beautiful_Hammer_Beam.jpg). The blue modifier referred to its eerie blue-green water-hue when water-filled, a coloring much like that seen at strong springs in the Pinelands known as “blue holes.” Alas, like so many other “darksome pools” (Beck, 1945, opposite page 21) of the Pines, Blue Bent Pond has all but dried up due to regional groundwater drop due to urbanization and well over-withdrawal. It’s almost certain that such an incredible place as marble spung once had another name, which is now long forgotten.

Spung
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,692
4,863
Pines; Bamber area
Bob,

Many spungs have remarkably circular traces. This form likely relates back to the conditions the basins formed under as sparse tundra-barrens blowouts – cold, dry, and windy. Cold, nonglacial (i.e., periglacial) terrain is often characterized by symmetrical geometric shapes known as “patterned ground.” We know of at least three periods during the last 200,000 years that frozen ground (i.e., permafrost) was present across South Jersey. That is why some round spungs are chained together like pearls on a necklace. A favorite round spung is Blue Bent Pond in Mizpah, secreted by an incredibly thick, extensive, and nearly leathal barrier of greenbriar (Smilax):

http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.49216882127215&lng=-74.80382680892944&z=15&type=nj1930&gpx=

Bent is an almost obsolete English word for the curved portion of a rounded form, like that found in ancient timber-frame structures (e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beautiful_Hammer_Beam.jpg). The blue modifier referred to its eerie blue-green water-hue when water-filled, a coloring much like that seen at strong springs in the Pinelands known as “blue holes.” Alas, like so many other “darksome pools” (Beck, 1945, opposite page 21) of the Pines, Blue Bent Pond has all but dried up due to regional groundwater drop due to urbanization and well over-withdrawal. It’s almost certain that such an incredible place as marble spung once had another name, which is now long forgotten.

Spung

Someday it would be great if you led a day long expedition to some of your favorites land features down your way Mark. Smilax be damned-we're tough! Marble Spung:

http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.72360171471324&lng=-74.34881687164306&z=17&type=nj2007&gpx=
 

Spung-Man

Piney
Jan 5, 2009
1,000
729
65
Richland, NJ
www.researchgate.net
Ted Gordon Death March

Bob,

Even the USGS cartographer noticed the marble's remarkably round form:

http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.72352744723166&lng=-74.34452533721924&z=16&type=topo&gpx=

That's no mistake, USGS-quad sheets often make small ciphers to commemorate the unusual, like the blue dot at Mt. Misery Blue Hole.

it would be great if you led a day long expedition to some of your favorites land features

Yes, great; chigger bites upon puncture wounds. Sounds like fun to me too! This proposal reminds me of the Ted Gordon death march, our August 13, 2005 Philadelphia Botanical Club field trip with humidity and temperatures both approaching the hundred mark. That man's a botanizing animal...

Gordon T, Demitroff M. 2009. 13 August: spungs, cripples, blue holes, and savannahs (savannas) in the Pine Barrens of Atlantic and Cumberland Counties, NJ. Bartonia: Journal of the Philadelphia Botanical Club. 64: 59-62

Cheers!
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,692
4,863
Pines; Bamber area
PS: for Turtle and Oji;

At the first post, 5th photo, where everyone is lined up for a shot....that is mosty Rhynchospora kneiskernii. I was shocked when I did a quick estimate a couple weeks later....over 15,000 individual plants. There seems to be an underlying clay lens there, and I'm betting that Marble spung has a clayey bottom, which allows it to retain water longer than the surrounding country.
 

Spung-Man

Piney
Jan 5, 2009
1,000
729
65
Richland, NJ
www.researchgate.net
PS: for Turtle and Oji; I'm betting that Marble spung has a clayey bottom, which allows it to retain water longer than the surrounding country.

Bob,

Spungs are not typical vernal pools that collect surface runoff, but are usually shallow water-table features, literally windows into the groundwater (French & Demitroff, 2001; Demitroff 2007). The reason for much of their water-fill is that spung bottoms are lower than surrounding ground and so bisect the local water-table. They are better described as intermittent pools rather than vernal pools for this reason. Upon close inspection, you can often find natural holes or pipes (Wolfe 1953: 134; 1956: 508; Demitroff 2007: 93) passing through a spung’s densified bottom (i.e., fragipan, French et al., 2009). I suggest that the fading of Pinelands wetlands (e.g., spungs, cripples, blue holes, savannahs) is primarily caused by a diminution in the regional shallow groundwater. The further you stray from the Pinelands core area, the more pronounced the effect (i.e., its manmade).

Demitroff M. 2007. Pine Barrens Wetlands: Geographical Reflections of South Jersey’s Periglacial Legacy. MS thesis, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 244 pp.

French HM, Demitroff M. 2001. Cold-climate origin of the enclosed depressions and wetlands ('spungs') of the Pine Barrens, southern New Jersey, USA. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes. 12: 337-350.

French HM, Demitroff M, Newell WL. (2009). Past Permafrost on the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, eastern USA. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes. 20, 3: 285-294.

Wolfe PE. 1953. Periglacial frost-thaw basins in New Jersey. The Journal of Geology. 61, 2: 133-141.

Wolfe PE. 1956. Pleistocene periglacial frost-thaw phenomena on the New Jersey Coastal Plain. Transactions, New York Academy of Sciences. 18, 1: 507-515.
 

oji

Piney
Jan 25, 2008
2,129
549
64
Browns Mills
Bob, Are you saying there must be a layer of clay extending from the spung that allows water to flow from the spung under the area of the photo? This along with the abundant sunshine created by the burn made ideal conditions for R. kneiskernii?
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,692
4,863
Pines; Bamber area
Bob, Are you saying there must be a layer of clay extending from the spung that allows water to flow from the spung under the area of the photo? This along with the abundant sunshine created by the burn made ideal conditions for R. kneiskernii?

Oh no Tom....the spung is about 1/3 mile away. I did not mean to connect the two. I was only saying that R. Knieskernii is often above a clay lens which holds the water as their habit requires it. I went on to say I thought there might also be clay at the bottom of the Spung. I defer to Mark though, it is more likely that the spung is just an area where the ground water can seep out. But, some day when I'm out that way it will be neat to dig around a bit to see if there is clay at the bottom also. I seem to remember it being clayey at the edges.
 

LARGO

Piney
Sep 7, 2005
1,553
134
54
Pestletown
Well all, not to hijack the hijack or whichever. I am no longer sure what this thread is on topic with.
I must comment on the work of Terry. You go girl! In every image that these good folks post I am certain that you could transform them with the hand of a true artist into something wonderful. I've seen so my self. You created a very fine piece for Guy, Bob, and all of us. (sadly enough you can not trim the hard mileage off of Robert but that task is beyond the mightiest brush)
Your gentle essence in paint is very warming indeed. Whatever it is that drives you, keep doing it.
Thanks for sharing another of your works and know that... Uncle Otto would be proud!
I will see you soon my friend. Counting the days till Linda's event.

I now return you kind folks to your speak of spungs, or spongs, or ponds, or mudpuddles.

g.
 

Spung-Man

Piney
Jan 5, 2009
1,000
729
65
Richland, NJ
www.researchgate.net
Painting of BobPBX in Marble Spung

Sorry if the scientific jargon detracts from other aesthetics. Have empathy for my dear wife Patty and daughter Sassafras! For over 13,000-years spungs were used by various cultures as resource sinks, and today hey can be critical habitat for many rare plants and animals. Yes Bob, spung bottoms can contain some-to-a-lot of clay, but many bottoms are composed of fine, dense sand bedding that behaves like clay – but isn’t. Whether an impermeable layer is present or not has minimal bearing on pool water-fill. Spung sides and bottoms are usually leaky, permitting groundwater to easily enter or leave (i.e., infiltrate or exfiltrate) in both the horizontal or vertical plane.

Figure 1 Simplified sketch showing groundwater relationship between spung-fill and shallow water-table, drawn by Pat Demitroff and adapted from Demitroff 2007: 62.



Spung-Fill.jpg
 

Spung-Man

Piney
Jan 5, 2009
1,000
729
65
Richland, NJ
www.researchgate.net
Windows into Groundwater

Bob,

I suggest that the fading of Pinelands wetlands (e.g., spungs, cripples, blue holes, savannahs) is primarily caused by a diminution in the regional shallow groundwater. The further you stray from the Pinelands core area, the more pronounced the effect (i.e., its manmade).

The current issue of Pinelands Watch reported that the USGS has evidence of Pinelands spung-dying caused by man:

http://www.pinelandsalliance.org/protection/work/watch/

In my opinion, this effect is not just a Cape May County problem.

Spung-Man
 

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