Vibe-Fall-2024 - Flipbook - Page 26
Above: An aerial view of a kettle pond landscape. Photo by Joe Klementovich. Right: Birding at one of the kettle hole ponds. Photo by Carissa Milliman.
Cool & Peaceful Waters
A standout feature of Chain of Ponds is the string of bogs, ponds,
and streams that dot the landscape and feed directly into Silver
Lake, providing crucial replenishment to that body of water.
Because water from Silver Lake provides drinking water to
Unique Topography
While the nearby Ossipee Ring Dike was formed by volcanic
forces, the topography of Chain of Ponds was molded by retreating glaciers at the end of the most recent Pleistocene ice age. A
series of kettlehole bogs, kettle ponds, and kettle wetlands dot
Healthy watersheds, in turn, are vital for the flood management they provide, acting like a
sponge during rainstorms and spring snowmelt. Given the increasing frequency and intensity
of rainstorms and extreme floods, conservation projects such as Chain of Ponds are direct
investments in our overall regional climate resilience.
many Madison residents and, in turn, flows into Ossipee Lake—
another important source of drinking water in the region—conservation of the surface water resources is vital to maintaining
a high-quality drinking water supply for thousands of New
Hampshire residents.
The untouched surface water resources at Chain of Ponds—
Blue Pond, Mack Pond, Cranberry Bog, Tyler Bog, and numerous
unnamed streams and ephemeral vernal pools—also play an
essential contributing role to the overall health of the Saco River
watershed. Healthy watersheds, in turn, are vital for the flood
management they provide, acting like a sponge during rainstorms and spring snowmelt. Given the increasing frequency
and intensity of rainstorms and extreme floods, conservation
projects such as Chain of Ponds are direct investments in our
overall regional climate resilience.
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the landscape, and are surrounded by the wandering ridges of
glacial eskers.
Kettles are depressions in the land formed either by blocks
of ice that calve and are left behind by a retreating glacier, or the
abrupt melting of a previously ice-dammed lake. In both cases,
a hole is left behind that fills with water from the melting ice.
Sometimes kettles are fed by surface waters, in which case it
is considered a kettle lake; and in other cases, they are fed by
groundwater sources and precipitation, in which case they are
kettle ponds or kettle bogs, the latter being the term if the kettle
is vegetated. Chain of Ponds has all three.
Another notable glacial feature that is easy to see at Chain
of Ponds is its long spines of glacial eskers. An esker is a ridge
made of sand and gravel that is deposited and shaped by pressurized subglacial meltwater. Eskers are scientifically important
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