The Dorset Marsh and Hurricane Irene
Margaret Meachem
September 2011
The following text, along with pointers to photographs, was written by Margaret Meachem, composer, to the Manchester Journal shortly after Hurricane Irene passed through the state of Vermont (in the United States).
I live in the Dorset Marsh. It's a beautiful place. All of us who live in and around this 200 acre complex should be thankful for its flood plain and the absorption of flood waters, snow runoff and cleansing properties which it offers to this whole region. This headwater Marsh to the Hudson via the Battenkill and Champlain to the north is a treasure of wildlife, flora and fauna, 100 mapped springs, from the junction of route 30 and the West Road of Dorset to Lane Road and countless more north to Rupert Mountain Road. There is also open water, beaver dam, shrub and scrub marsh, wooded glacial moraine, hummock, bog and fen.
It serves the area as the only flood plain between the two Taconic Range peaks and an historic Marble Mill Dam at Cross Road. The Larry Lees who own this Dam served the community by draining South Dorset Pond and rebuilding the Dam so that their southern neighbors would not be inundated with flood water in storms like Hurricane Irene. The Marsh passed the test for protection of all of us who live around it. Look below to see a series of photos of the destruction throughout Vermont. We feared the hurricane winds but never have we experienced the devastation that water wrought in our State.
The photographs below, taken from buzzfeed.com, include also New York State and Massachusetts.
· · ·
Jamaica VT
Battenkill River VT
Tannersville NY
Windham NY
Fairhaven MA
SITES
EMF :: Arts Electric :: EMF Productions :: Ear to the Earth :: CDeMusic :: EMF Media :: EMF Institute