Bill's Botanical Forays

I drove by Mill Race Swamp today and discovered that the water level was way down. I think that is because someone removed the beaver-placed debris from the drainage culvert. Anyway, the swamp is an impoundment. The road that borders it on the south side is a dike. Before they built the road, the area that is now the swamp was an bottomland forest. You can see what a bottomland forest looks like on the south side of the road. In the swamp itself, you can see the old semi-rotting stumps and logs of the trees that used to stand here. Botanically, the area is dominated by swamp tolerant grass and some swamp shrubs. There are just a few interesting plants. Sigh. The beavers love it and I have seen a bald eagle or two flying over the area at times. I saw evidence of a river otter passing through on one of my visits last year.