Wharton Plantation is a large chunk of land open to the public in Groton Massachusetts. It is owned by the New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF), which operates parts of it as a demonstration of sustained use forestry. The NEFF headquarters are also on Wharton Plantation.
Wharton Plantation is located on both sides of Old Dunstable Road starting
at route 40 and extending north past Rocky Hill Road. It can be thought of as
being divided into three sections.
The Burnt Meadow section is east of Old Dunstable Road, the Badacook section
is west of Old Dunstable and south of Rocky Hill Road, and the Rocky Hill
section is the remainder north of Rocky Hill Road.
One of the main features in the Burnt Meadow section is Burnt Meadow Pond.
This used to be a small pond until the beavers got busy. It now features
the largest beaver dam I know of in the area, shown at right. This structure
must be at least 70 feet wide and raises the water level three feet or so.
The beaver dam has greatly enlarged Burnt Meadow Pond. There are a number
of dead and bare standing trees in the pond, and I wouldn't be surprised to
see a heron roockery there soon. There is already a heron roockery on the
Rocky Hill section.
The water level has been raised so that the old dirt road leading to what is
now the beaver dam is flooded in a few spots. In fact, the beavers have built
small auxilliary dams on the road where the water would otherwise flow into
the meadow to the south. I found this frog sitting in one of these flooded
sections. I think it's probably a bull frog, but I haven't looked that up
yet. It was pretty big, about 4-5 inches long.
If anyone knows for sure before I get around to it, you're welcome to
send me email. I'd also like to know
the scientific name so I can look up more and maybe link to a nice descriptive
page.