A Conversation about Drowning Worms and drowning Lands

This last week has been very wet. My rain gauge measured six inches over the three days from Saturday through Monday. Two inches a day is pretty heavy rainfall. The rain is predicted to continue through the rest of the week with a hint of a clearing by Friday. That's a lot of moisture in a short time. There are already flood warnings being posted as I write this on Tuesday. My morning walk was punctuated by tiny worm corpses covering the blacktopped areas. This is, of course, common after any moderate to heavy rain. The water floods their shallow tunnel homes and they die. They don't go to waste... the insect population appreciates them as food.

My busy brain zipped from thinking about drowned worms to considering flooding in general to the phrase “drowned lands.” I had heard the phrase to describe an area in Columbia County owned by the Columbia Land Conservancy, and to describe an area further downriver. I have also occasionally heard it to describe the towns and villages forced underwater by creating reservoirs, or, in some other states, a side effect of dam building. So what's the deal?  

One definition of drowned lands, the one I'll be using, is this: areas subject to seasonal flooding over a long period resulting in large marshlands. A side effect of this activity is often rich black soil from sediments accumulating.

]Starting with the reservoirs, there are all sorts of legends and traditions involved, but I'm going to exclude examples created by man. Other cases are caused by natural events, so let's look at them.        In Columbia County, the Drowned Lands Swamp Conservation area is a popular hiking resource. It's about 114 acres of swamp and “swamp-adjacent” land. It has not been “improved” and remains a source of much information about the ecology of swamps. The main historical claims to fame are the fact that it was a popular place during prohibition and the fact that the black flies are especially ferocious. 

Down river from Columbia County is the Wallkill Drowned Lands. History buffs can revel in the maneuvering done by farmers and politicians in the 17th century. Orange County in New York and Suffolk County in New Jersey saw decades of arguments and strife and shady deals committed as opposing factions known as the “Beaver and Muskrat War”. The object, of course, was to rearrange the huge swampy area for the best use (read profit). This was clearly perceived differently by the opposing factions. Some of the Drowned Lands extended into Ulster County, as well, but didn't seem to be as politically colorful. I'm including a link for those who want to read a fascinating history of the Beaver and Muskrat War: https://www.albertwisnerlibrary.org/Factsandhistory/History/DrownedLandsoftheWallkill.htm

All this historical stuff aside, the phenomenon of Drowned Lands is an interesting one on many other levels. My experience leads me to believe (unscientifically) that there are many small swamps scattered here and there all around the state wherever water flow is seasonally erratic. Many of them contain skeletal forests, drowned by the upheaval in their environment. They remain because there is no current commercial or farming use for the land, and often foster unusual combinations of flora and fauna in response to the changes in environment. The first to colonize, by the way, seem to be the blackflies, so beware!