Thanks to the New Bedford Garden Club, DNRT is now the happy owner of a beautiful rhododendron-encircled pond --actually a glacial kettle hole-- between Gaffney Road and Wadsworth Lane. The two-and-a-half-acre property was originally given to the Garden Club by Gaffney Road resident Helen Wadsworth. For years the Garden Club maintained a pleasant walking trail around the pond and an access path from Gaffney Road. More recently the property was less carefully tended. Poison ivy blocked the access, and the rhododendrons grew so large that, in several places, they obliterated the trail or intruded on the pond itself. Even so, the property remains a little jewel hidden in the woods.
Anyone familiar with the history of glaciers within southeastern Massachusetts will find the pond interesting because it is a classic kettle pond. Dartmouth has --or once had--many such ponds, created when a large ice formation was contained within glacial sediment. As the ice melted, it created in its place a kettle shaped depression lined by relatively impermeable sediment and surrounded by conical hills of outwash material. Often these glacial features have been obliterated by roads, farms, gravel pits and residential or business development, so the Garden Club Reserve offers a unique opportunity to see a small example of this kettle and kame landscape.
The Reserve is located just back from the east shore of the Slocum's River, approximately opposite the Slocum's River Reserve. Although the property is relatively small and not visible from road or river, its proximity to the river makes its protection especially important.
DNRT plans to restore the access trail off of Gaffney Road and post property boundary markers and rules for use of the Reserve. Until this work is completed, prospective visitors are warned that they may encounter uneven footing, unfriendly little bugs, and aggressive poison ivy.
Donor : New Bedford Garden Club
