I’ve seen this mountain many times before, but only from across the Connecticut River. From Bellows Falls, Vermont, Fall Mountain is a wall of trees, towering over the falls that give both the town and the mountain their names. The mountain provides a kind of forested wallpaper behind the all-American townscape of Bellows Falls.
But that steep mountain face is hiding a secret. It’s a secret that’s only revealed when you climb to the summit or look down on the mountain from above. Here, on the top of Fall Mountain in Charlestown and Langdon, New Hampshire, are four ponds and some miscellaneous wetlands connected by a stream.
Mountaintop wetlands are always special places. Here on Fall Mountain, the lay of the land, a mountain stream, and the diligent work of beavers have combined to create the ponds. To me, the shape of the mountaintop brings to mind a molar, though that comparison is inadequate for such a beautiful place.
Eric Aldrich, director of communications for The Nature Conservancy of New Hampshire, says that beaver continue to play a role in shaping the landscape and the habitat for other animals on the top of Fall Mountain. An unnamed pond on the north end of the mountain has a beaver lodge, lots of chewed stumps, gnawed trees, and an impressive dam that raises the water level about 2 feet.
This pond is thick with standing dead trees, and Aldrich confirms that it is a great place for wood ducks. A neatly trimmed sheaf of reeds testifies to the presence of muskrats. Otters also make their home here in these wetlands, Aldrich says. When he and I first arrived at the shore of the north pond, a great blue heron flew off to a more comfortable distance with big, slow flaps. We also saw deer droppings and several turkey feathers.
Aldrich examines a shagbark hickory nut for bear tooth marks. The oak trees here are also a good source of food for black bear, he says.
Aldrich leans over for a closer look at a plant at the edge of the pond. It has long, slim leaves and tight clusters of seeds dangling from the end branched stems. Some of those stems are droopy, but others stand straight up. No, he decides, this isn’t it.
These Fall Mountain wetlands are home to the federally endangered northeastern bulrush. The Northeastern bulrush is a sedge, which is a plant that is a lot like a grass, except it has a solid, angular stem instead of a grass’s round, hollow stem. The Northeastern bulrush sports clusters of seeds from the end of August until the end of September. These seeds are at the end of droopy stems – very droopy stems.
The cascading stems and the spiky-looking cluster of seeds remind Susi Von Oettingen, a biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, of an old-fashioned drawing of fireworks. She has a rubber stamp showing just such a drawing of fireworks. She has spent so much time monitoring Northeastern bulrush populations in our area that she can see the image of the bulrush in the stamp.
If any one of those inflorescence rays (as the droopy seed stems are properly called) is standing up straight, then it’s probably not a Northeastern bulrush, Von Oettingen advises. With a similar-looking bulrush in hand, Aldrich points out a reddish coloring on the seed stems, which is another sign that it’s not a Northeastern bulrush.
The Northeastern bulrush is a rare plant with some finicky habitat requirements. It is threatened by development and by disturbance of its habitat. (If an ATV tears up a clump, for example, it’s gone. And this is a plant where just about every clump is counted, and counts.)
There is good news for the Northeastern bulrush, though: Fall Mountain has been conserved by The Nature Conservancy of New Hampshire, bringing the species that much closer to its national recovery goal of 20 protected populations. Also, over in Vermont, Bob Popp, the botanist for the state’s Nongame and Natural Heritage Program, has a real talent for finding new populations of Northeastern bulrush, Von Oettingen says.
The Northeastern bulrush’s good fortune is ours as well. The 950-acre plot on Fall Mountain recently acquired by The Nature Conservancy (it still needs to be paid for, however) will soon become a state park. And it will be an active state park, at that. Hunting and fishing will be permitted, as will hiking and snowmobiling. The students at Fall Mountain High School will continue to have the use of the mountain for science classes, sports training, and their maple syrup operation.
Some secrets, it seems, are meant to be shared.