Where's the Water?

A view of what is normally Goose Pond — this year it is a mudflat! Photo from the Goose Pond web cam

Folks have been asking, what happened to the water at Goose Pond this year?

Prairie pothole freshwater marshes like Goose Pond are found throughout the upper Midwest. Most are about one-acre in size but like Goose Pond at 60 acres, can be much larger.

Prairie potholes are shallow depressive wetlands that receive water from rainfall and snowmelt runoff. In dry years they lack water inputs, often drying up completely. That's what happened this year.

In 2012, Goose Pond dried completely allowing sediment to settle and gave seeds of wetland plants a chance to germinate. Frogs and toads buried deep in the mud were on hand to greet the spring of 2013 when water returned to the pond.

Floods and droughts are nothing new to a prairie pothole. Enjoy the waxing and waning of freshwater wetlands like Goose Pond. For them, change is good!

You can tune in to our Pond Cam livestream for 24/7 updates on what's happening at Goose Pond (madisonaudubon.org/pond-cam) and watch for our November 2022 newsletter that describes the dry-up in more detail.

Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers