In Ida's Wake

Four days after hurricane Ida devastated parts of Louisiana, residual winds and rainfall arrived in Massachusetts. Over Wednesday night and into Thursday morning, 13cm (or 5 inches) of rain fell on the Tidmarsh restoration site as recorded by the weather station installed by Christine Hatch on Foothills Preserve.

Data from Living Observatory & Christine Hatch.

Data from Living Observatory & Christine Hatch.

Four hours after the rain stopped, at around 2pm, we went out to survey how the restoration sites dealt with the deluge. The area around the weather station was extremely wet, and the area to the east of the large pond was inundated. A few minutes later, as we walked the length of the restoration of Manomet Brook, we were pleased to observe the over bank-full condition of this small feeder stream. On our travels we noticed that a few trees had succumbed to the downpour, of note was a reasonably large grey birch located near the juncture of Manomet Brook and Beaver Dam Brook. 

Photo by Living Observatory.

Photo by Living Observatory.

In all, it appeared that the restored areas performed as forecasted, providing open space for the generous and fast flowing rain water moving down the Pine Hills and off Foothills Preserve into Manomet Brook.  An added bonus: for the third time this summer, the shrubs and trees planted as part of the restoration during the winter were provided a generous shot of rain water.