common_nature | Englewood Lake

I tend to go over to this quiet little spot by the lake to write when it's nice out, but I'm not getting a whole lot done there lately. I'd say yesterday was the the first time since early October that we've had any rain around here, so there really isn't any lake there anymore. The whole thing's completely dry. It's just incredibly beautiful and weird, so if the birds don't distract me to the point of negative productivity, it's wondering things like "could I walk to that island on the other side of the lake?" that do me in. Lately I've been making an effort to remember to bring my camera with me, and my latest project is documenting the lake.

Englewood sits about ten miles north of Dayton in southwestern Ohio. Back in 1913, Dayton got creamed by a great big flood that took out basically every town in Ohio that had the bad luck to be within twenty miles of a river (film and photos from the state archive). Dayton got hit particularly badly because downtown sits almost right on top of the confluence of the Great Miami, Mad, and Stillwater Rivers. So to make sure nothing like that ever happened again, the city founded a Conservancy District for the purpose of damming the heck out of every river they could find.

(the floodwaters rose to the red dot just above the first set of limb-stumps)

This naturally leaves a big old hole in the ground when you take the dirt to make the dam. And as it turns out, that's a fine way to make a dam, but not a very healthy way to make a lake. The lake never was deeper than about six feet, and the silt from the river floods have been gradually filling it in over time.

It's been holding pretty steady as a normal lake for most of the five or ten years that the park district has been talking about its plans for the river and the park. I actually don't have too many before pictures, because it's a nice place to hang out, but it's not all that visually interesting unless it's frozen or dried out or something. So here it is in January.

And here it is on 25 October:

12 November:

in the rain yesterday:

and today.

What's especially cool about it is how quickly the lake is turning into prairie.

The middle of the lake is pretty well lifeless, but there are still some little shrubby things trying to grow out there. I even saw water in between the cracks during one of my trips in November, though it hadn't rained in weeks.

(and if it looks like it would be easy or fun to walk on, it is not. Those cracks are about a foot deep. The little dirt islands get smaller and less stable the further out you go, and it's basically a half mile walk of watching your feet to get from the shore to the island on the other side.)

What used to be the shallows are all overgrown with this funny red ground cover in some places, and others have gone to tall grasses.

(this used to be where people went to feed the ducks.)

Because people can get out onto the lake now, there are clam and snail shells all over the place.

Because so much of it is open grassland now, there are birds all over the place. I haven't been able to photograph them all, but I've seen barn swallows, chickadees, bluebirds, blue jays, a pileated woodpecker, a redtail hawk, and some kind of warbler in the scrub at the edge of the lake.

It's gotten to the point now where this is what I do when I'm bored. Plenty of important things to work on, but oh hey! What's the lake doing? I bet it's cool!