A pond, a stream, and bog

[Jon Holcombe]

Another dam (at sunset) and a pond (at sunrise) and bog (sunrise) shot over the past few days. My car (less than a year old) is now getting so scratched that I will just have to take the hit when I trade it in. I also dropped a camera lens into the pond. My growing obsession with the Pinelands is beginning to cost me, but it's worth it.

 

[1Jerseydevil]

Great shots. I'm just wondering in the middle photo of the dam if that big cedar tree just happened to fall in that spot or if it was cut by the beavers?

 

[manumuskin]

Awesome Jon! Makes me want to head out that way and revisit a few islands in the Tulpe swamp.You'd have some great opportunities along the Tulpe mainstream itself.The bogs your shooting are along the Featherbed Branch but the mainstream is gorgeous as well.

 

[Jon Holcombe]

Great shots. I'm just wondering in the middle photo of the dam if that big cedar tree just happened to fall in that spot or if it was cut by the beavers?

I was so focused on getting in position and finding my point of view that I never looked for beaver cutting marks. My lens fell to stream bottom there so I left quickly in a rather bad mood. But if a beaver dropped that log, he's quite an engineer.

 

[Jon Holcombe]

Awesome Jon! Makes me want to head out that way and revisit a few islands in the Tulpe swamp.You'd have some great opportunities along the Tulpe mainstream itself.The bogs your shooting are along the Featherbed Branch but the mainstream is gorgeous as well.

MM, my son and I tried to access the Tulpe from the lower Friendship bogs, but I'm embarrassed to say that we were turned away by a maze of swamp and logs. We also walked up last summer from Hawkins Lowland Rd. At the time, we had not gotten our 18" boots and our Merrills didn't cut it, and we just stood on the outskirts. It looks beautiful. He wants to go back and I am eyeballing a couple of ways to get there. I am trying to get the Featherbed/Friendship out of my system, but there is so much there to shoot.

 

[bobpbx]

Nice.

Imagine how beautiful it would have been if the beaver had not killed all that cedar from damming up the place.

"Some cedar swamps have been eliminated by beaver and human dams. An expanding beaver population, also suffering from a loss of wetland habitat, has caused the demise of some very old cedar stands that had no evidence of earlier beaver damage."

Source: http://www.nhdfl.org/library/pdf/FSAtlanticWhiteCedarSwamps2.pdf

"Beavers have an impact on AWC. Although they have been noted to consume competing vegetation to allow
more growing light and room for the AWC seedlings, the beaver’s dam affects cedars most. When a beaver
dams a stream and the water rises, cedar trees and seedlings die."

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/forest/Atlantic white-cedar.pdf

Okay, I'll get off the soap box. But remember, some day we'll have to choose between beaver or Atlantic White Cedar.

 

[Jon Holcombe]

Nice.
Imagine how beautiful it would have been if the beaver had not killed all that cedar from damming up the place.
Source: http://www.nhdfl.org/library/pdf/FSAtlanticWhiteCedarSwamps2.pdf
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/forest/Atlantic white-cedar.pdf
Okay, I'll get off the soap box. But remember, some day we'll have to choose between beaver or Atlantic White Cedar.

I thought the dead trees in the ponds were normal, they are so typical in Wharton. I did not realize they were the beautiful AWC that grows in the streams and wetlands of the forest. It is really the creeks, streams, rivers, bogs and swamps that makes the Pinelands beautiful to me. The sandy roads through the scrub pine are just a way to get where the action really is. There is a stand on the West Branch Wading in Franklin Parker where the AWC grows tall and close together, and when the wind blows the branches creak and moan. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

 

[Teegate]

Okay, I'll get off the soap box. But remember, some day we'll have to choose between beaver or Atlantic White Cedar.

I'll take the cedar.

 

[manumuskin]

MM, my son and I tried to access the Tulpe from the lower Friendship bogs, but I'm embarrassed to say that we were turned away by a maze of swamp and logs. We also walked up last summer from Hawkins Lowland Rd. At the time, we had not gotten our 18" boots and our Merrills didn't cut it, and we just stood on the outskirts. It looks beautiful. He wants to go back and I am eyeballing a couple of ways to get there. I am trying to get the Featherbed/Friendship out of my system, but there is so much there to shoot.

The upper Tulpe is easier to access from the south side.I know one way to get to it fairly easy from the north side but involves quite a hike and you still end up swamping the last 50 yards or so. When you decide to hit the Tulpe let me know and I"ll send you some easy access points (maps of ways in) Work the featherbed over good first because once you get to the Tulpe proper you may be there awhile

 

[Jon Holcombe]

Thanks for the offer MM, your help in getting into Friendship/Featherbed was invaluable. I will take you up on that in the next few weeks.