Blog

It’s been three years since we lost the ephemeral pools on the route of our daily walk, and to be honest, the walk is less engaging without them. When a land developer decided the old road bed should be “improved”–to attract buyers who never came—the ruts creating the ponds were scraped smooth and the birthplace of countless generations of amphibians disappeared overnight. Frogs, toads, salamanders… where do they lay their eggs now? Nowhere, I suspect, unless they had the wherewithal to migrate across the dirt road and through the old field and down the hill, all the way to the ephemeral pond along the Oconee Bell Trail at Devils Fork State Park. Thinking of habitat loss usually brings to mind the clearing of forest, but there is much more to the maintenance of diversity. I breath a little “thank you” to Devil Fork SP for giving these creatures a place to raise their young. The park is a refuge for more than just campers! ~K