16 Jul, 2011 Author: Glorianna Davenport

In the future, Living Observatory will provide adynamic view into a changing landscape. For now, we rely on limited observation, common sense, experience. On Wednesday, July 13, we attended Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences annual Summer Fest. We began by touring the Holmes Farm with Kit and Jenn who explained the renovations that are in process on the bogs and in the community gardens. We then heard about several of the Center’s initiatives in sustainability.Throughout the afternoon and evening, the tent was graced with a few short showers, pale harbingers of the thunde storm that let loose later that evening and into the morning hours. By the time it stopped, 3 inches of rainfall had been recorded at Plymouth Airport while Tidmarsh recorded only 0.8 inches. However 0.8 inches combined with the 3.0 inches that fell on Tidmarsh on July 8 and 9thhave swelled the river thatmeanders through the former impoundment to a third again the width it was on July 4. While I long for a more complete model of what took place on the ground, this image combined with the rainfall data reminds us us of the river's potential to dynamically respond tolarge fluctuations of precipitation and ground water levels.