By Susan and Biff Andrews

Fall has fallen, and we’re back outside checking on our favorite haunts. Visits to Merchants Millpond State Park in North Carolina and the Great Dismal Swamp this past weekend revealed some of the best and worst of nature’s traits and humankind’s behavior — not to mention the ugliest.

The good: At Merchants Millpond State Park, we saw the best of what parks can offer. There were young families with running kids and backpacked kids and dogs and… — all having a great time outdoors as well as in the Visitor Center stuffed with stuffed bears and possums and reptiles and birds, etc.

There was a 20-something handsome young man taking a 20-something special needs girl on a canoe ride. She was delighted. There was a grizzled old guy shepherding a bunch of young kayakers across the pond. People were renting these craft, but across the lake there was a boat ramp crammed with parents and kids launching their own craft, the kids appropriately attired in life vests. In the Visitor Center, we bought $10 walking sticks for our 89-year-old parents, and away we went on a lovely walking trail lined with ferns and bald cypress. A good time was being had by all. There was no litter. The Visitor Center is a “green building,” which is a lesson in itself, and everything was positive, positive, positive.

The bad: The following day, we visited the Great Dismal Swamp at the Jericho Ditch. We love the swamp, especially after the flies are gone. It was its usual resplendent self with blue and yellow wildflowers and asters and incipient fall foliage. So what was the bad? The ditches are full of invasive grasses such that it’s impossible to see the clear juniper water. It did not look like alligator grass to us, but it’s obviously a species that has taken over the swamp. We are used to seeing turtles, otters and bladderwort — but not anymore.

Mind you, it doesn’t appear to be the fault of humans. But it can’t be sprayed without harming other sensitive species. We haven’t been down to the George Washington Ditch or the Railroad Ditch recently, but we suspect they are similarly afflicted. It’s a bad situation.

The ugly: On the road into the Jericho Ditch parking area, there are several small swampy areas on the south side that are always interesting to view. Various mosses, flowering bladderworts, and turtles inhabit them, and there are dozens of species of birds in the trees above. Often, you will see birders parked next to these ponds with binoculars trained upwards looking for prothonatory warblers, Swainson’s warblers and many other exotic species.

But we didn’t need to use binoculars to spot the 24 tires that someone had dumped there. Now, a week or so ago there was an amnesty day on tire disposal at Lowe’s, but I think commercial disposals were prohibited. Anyone who has 24 tires is probably commercial. Still, just dumping tires into an ecologically sensitive National Wildlife Refuge is not just illegal but bespeaks callous disregard for the planet. Whoever did it has no soul.

So there you have it — the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, all outdoors in one weekend. We applaud the good — and greatly admire families and friends who take others outdoors into nature. We deplore the invasive species trend in places we have not seen them in the past 35 years. Keep in mind that all of the Suffolk lakes are suffering from invasions of Alligator Weed. Not much can be done. But the ugly! Some lout, cretin and soul-less idiot has dumped tires in the swamp rather than pay a few bucks each for the disposal fee. Money over morality — again.

 

Susan and Bradford “Biff” Andrews are retired teachers and master naturalists who have been outdoor people all their lives, exploring and enjoying the woods, swamps, rivers and beaches throughout the region for many years. Email them at b.andrews22@live.com.