The Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter invites explorers of all ages to find out what’s “Over and Under the Pond” on Sunday.
The free drop-in event, which takes place in and outside of the EcoCenter runs from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., is designed to help people understand the importance of these wetlands, said Hunter Klingensmith, director of visitor experience.
“We’ll have tents set up to help keep people and some of the critters they will study cool, and we’ll have activities like macro-invertebrate investigation stations that will focus on aquatic insects you can see with the naked eye,” she said. “We’ll also set up our field microscopes so you can look at these insects more closely and use the dichotomous key to see which insects you’re examining.”
Macro-invertebrates are indicators of pond quality and health, and attendees will have a chance to calculate what that means, Klingensmith said.
“I like to think of a healthy pond as a pond that is messy,” she said. “It hopefully has some beaver built dams and sidestream channels that spreads the water over the land and keeps it at a more regulated temperature.”
Thriving native plant species and macro invertebrates also indicate healthy ponds, according to Klingensmith.
“Some of these insects can live in pretty polluted water, but there are others that can only live in healthy water,” she said. “Stoneflies are super susceptible to pollution. So if we find them in a pond, there’s a good chance that the pond has the right number of nutrients and right amount of oxygen for them to survive.”
The event will also show visitors what they can do to help ponds become healthy, Klingensmith said.
“Some of the restoration projects we do on the preservice, like willow planting and building beaver dam analogues, are some of the ways we can help,” she said
Sunday’s event is inspired by a children’s book, “Over and Under the Pond” by Kate Messner, Klingensmith said.
“The author has other books like ‘Over and Under the Snow’ and ‘Over and Under the Street,’” she said. “‘Over and Under the Pond’ is one of our favorite books, and we will have a storytime when we read that book.”
The storytime will also include some movement activities, Klingensmith said.
“We’ll also do a craft where we’ll make wetland pond puppets, and we’ll set up a puppet theater where people can act out wetland scenes with those puppets,” she said. “We’ll also have a water play station with wetland-themed items. It will likely be hot, and that will be a little chance to get wet and cool.”
Explorers can also participate in biofact investigations, Klingensmith said.
“Biofacts are natural items that come from wetland, stream, river and pond critters,” she said. “We’ll use our new digital microscope to investigate.”
The 1,200-acre Swaner Preserve boasts a number of diverse ponds, according to Klingensmith.
“We have natural spring-fed ponds, which means they aren’t filled by streams, and most of those are on the far south side of the preserve by the Cutter Lane area,” she said. “There are ponds along the edge of the EcoCenter’s back deck.”
The preserve houses a series of 11 detention ponds, human-made ponds that were built to slow runoff that comes from development, Klingensmith said.
“When water hits roofs, pavement and impervious surfaces, it runs off faster, which causes erosion,” she said. “So these ponds were built to move water into the preserve a little slower.”
Usually detention ponds don’t have to hold water all year, Klingensmith said.
“But when the beavers came to the preserve in 2020, they dammed many detention ponds upstream and one by the EcoCenter,” she said.
Other ponds on the preserve are vernal ponds, which fill up during the spring with water from melting snow and rain, Klingensmith said.
“Most of these were rebuilt during the preserve’s restoration during the mid-1990s,” she said. “And this event is an opportunity to help people understand and gain a good grasp of what happens on the preserve and why it’s important to protect it.”
‘Over and Under the Pond’
- When: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday
- Where: Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter, 1258 Center Drive at Kimball Junction
- Cost: free, but reservations are suggested
- Reservations: tinyurl.com/yvcnmzxj
- Web: swanerecocenter.org