53: Oasis

Forest Pools Preserve, Carlisle, Pennsylvania

C A R L I S L E,  P A

In the 1970’s The Nature Conservancy (TNC) turned over 1,400 acres to the state of Pennsylvania who, in turn, used that land to created King’s Gap State Park on South Mountain.  In 2007, TNC acquired another seventy acres in the foothills of King’s Gap and currently manages that property as the Forest Pools Preserve.  TNC’s attraction to the property, simply put, was amphibians. 

On this preserve are several vulnerable water sources – seasonal, ephemeral pools that provide habitat for frogs, salamanders, newts, fairy shrimp and rare plants such as the pink lady's slipper. These pools are a distinctive type of wetland usually devoid of fish allowing development of natal amphibian safe from predation.  Most pools dry up during part of the year but then refill with winter’s rains and snow melt. 

These pools and the amphibians they nurture face a multitude of threats: pollution, invasive species, pesticides, acid rain, ATVs, and housing developments.  Perhaps the biggest threat though is simply a lack of understanding.  Enter TNC.  According the ChesapeakeBay.net, TNC has transformed the property “from trash pit to amphibian oasis”.  Beyond that, a lovely loop trail and several informative kiosks go a long way toward assuaging the misunderstandings of these important and elusive vernal pools. 

Winter

The trail I’m on leads into a quiet forest.  Tree leaves and underbrush have lain down revealing the bare elemental structures of this landscape - undulations are more clearly defined.  In depressions, water gathers, glistening through blankets of fallen leaves.   Following the wettest year in a generation, these woods are sodden - overfull ephemeral pools abound. 

On a day with temperatures at the edge of freezing, sheens of razor-thin ice form atop the still pools creating beautifully organized patterns starkly juxtaposed to the chanciness found in the forest.  The dormant undergrowth affords unimpeded walks around the edges of each pool bringing continual changes of light and reflections.  It’s an mesmerizing kaleidoscope.   

I become fixated by a rainbow luster and stand motionless at pools’ edge.  The winds have temporarily died down.  The quiet stillness brings contrast to an afternoon of steady, curiosity-chasing movement through these woods.  The inaction of a relaxing body brings more focus to contemplation.  I challenge myself not to move until a leaf falls to the surface of the pool.  After a longer time than anticipated, the winds return peeling a few remaining defiant leaves from the trees.  I watch one twist like a poorly folded paper airplane.  It lands on thin ice and slides into the water where the final phase of its deciduous process begins.  It’s a simple and subtle drama deep in a quiet woods. 

I cannot have enough hours of silence when nothing happens.

When the clouds go by.

When the trees say nothing.

When the birds sing.

I am completely addicted to the realization that just being there is enough.

- Thomas Merton, from When the Trees Say Nothing

Presumably, this forest is resting in January.  It’s a quiet, cold, and still place today.  But perhaps not for the Jefferson salamanders who emerge mid-winter and travel across the forest floor to the safety of these ephemeral waters to begin their mating process.  Though I’ve not spotted any salamanders on this visit, when I return in spring, their beadlike eggs in the clear waters of these still ponds will be easily evident.  What has been easily evident today though is the ecological value that TNC sees in this property.  A mindful visit attuned to the complexity of this place, has brought clear awareness to the significance of these seemingly simple forest pools.

LEARN MORE ABOUT TNC’S WORK AT WELLS BARREN HERE.