Preparing for the Thaw

Creating a Backyard Bird “Sanctuary”
January 12, 2017
Out and About for the Bangor Lakes Region of Maine Jan. 19-25
Out and About for the Bangor Lakes Region of Maine Jan. 19-25
January 18, 2017

Preparing for the Thaw

Ice out on Sebago Lake

“At length the sun’s rays have attained the right angle, and warm winds blow up mist and rain and melt the snowbanks, and the sun, dispersing the mist, smiles on a checkered landscape of russet and white smoking with incense, through which the traveler picks his way from islet to islet, cheered by the music of a thousand tinkling rills and rivulets whose veins are filled with the blood of winter which they are bearing off.”
            -Henry David Thoreau, Walden, “Spring”
 
On days when the temperature barely creeps above 20 degrees Farenheit and all that seems to interest us is hibernating beneath stacks of quilts and electric blankets, the thawing of nearby lakes seems so far-off that the thought of it seldomly crosses our minds.  What’s the point, we think, of dreaming of longer days and warmer weather when we still have months of stocking-feet and hearth fires ahead of us?
Unless you’re an avid ice fisherman or snowmobiler, chances are you prefer a lake when its water is able to flow freely as opposed to being locked in place. Poet Emily Dickson once alluded to the stillness and feelings of “oppression” that one might experience when looking across a frozen body of water: “There’s a certain slant of light / Winter Afternoons- / That oppresses, like the Heft- / Of Cathedral Tunes” (Dickinson, 320).  Of course, the frozen lake can also make for a brilliant, breathtaking sight in the early morning or late afternoon hours, when the rising or sinking sun casts a glistening, salmon-colored path across a fresh blanket of snow and the air, creating an aura of peace.  But here we are in the midst of a Maine January, and I’d be surprised if at least a good handful of us northerners weren’t feeling a little “oppressed” by all this ice surrounding us.  Who hasn’t sat by their fireside at least once in these harsh winter months and found themselves missing the sound of lukewarm lake water lapping against the shore, soft waves harmonized by the peepers and crickets calling in the distance.
Perhaps it is because of these fireside dreams that we experience in the depths of winter that the “Ice Out” dates of Maine lakes have historically been such significant and much-anticipated events.  For years, records have been kept on the specific dates in which “every last vestige of ice” (mainevlmp.org) has melted back into the body of water that created it.  (Note that the criteria for determining the exact time of ice-out can vary from lake to lake).  The Maine VLMP (Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program) notes that the single most important thing to keep in mind when determining official ice-out dates is to follow the criteria that has historically been used for a given lake.
So why do ice out dates matter?  Scientifically speaking, keeping detailed records of ice-out dates for Maine lakes provide data that help scientists to monitor and understand indicators of climate change in the area.  A 2006 article of the Bangor Daily News notes that “Scientists… look to lakes and rivers for more precise signals of a shifting climate.  In fact, ice-out dates, ice thickness measurements and the timing of the spring snowmelt indicate that Maine’s winters have undergone significant changes over the past hundred years… The past four or five decades, in particular, have brought shorter, milder winters to northern New England.  Averaged data from all three climate indicators show spring arriving one to two weeks earlier than it did in the 1950s and ‘60s.”  This particular article also mentions that not only is Maine’s climate shifting, but that “every study done in New England echoes the findings of research being conducted worldwide” (climatechange.umaine.edu).  For more information on climate change within our state, including what’s being done to mitigate it and suggestions on what you can do to help on an individual level, check out this article titled “Maine Lakes Tell Tale of Climate Change” by Susan Sharon, published in 2015 on mainepublic.org.
Stepping away from the scientific concerns surrounding the melting of Maine’s lakes, there’s a lot to be said about the tradition and myth surrounding this natural phenomenon.  “Ice Out!” is a phrase that rings true to Maine’s outdoor heritage, and it carries with it stories of winters’ (and springs’) past.  You know, the year the ice seemed to hang on forever, the year Pop Moore’s Ford Bronco nearly sunk into the lake (Bangor Daily News), the year so-and-so’s ice-fishing shanty ended up at the bottom of Wilton Pond (Lewiston Sun Journal).  Take a moment to find a true, old-time “Mainer” and point to a lake and a date in the Bureau of Parks and Lands, and I’m sure they will be able to provide you with a story worth listening to.
In fact, ice-out has become such a monumental event throughout the state that a multitude of contests have been dedicated to it: that’s right, all you need to do is guess the exact day of the official “ice out” and you could be a winner!  So, if you live near a lake, take a moment to check and see if your town offers an ice-out contest and place your bet!
Some say the melting of a lake sounds like a Star Wars space battle.  Others say it sounds like milk being poured over a bowl of Rice Krispies, or a whale, or thunder.  Thoreau described Walden Pond as making a booming sound about an hour after sunrise, “when it felt the influence of the sun’s rays slanted upon it from over the hills,” claiming that “it stretched itself and yawned like a waking man with a gradually increasing tumult…”  When the temperature changes, the ice makes noise as it expands and contracts and forms cracks.  Thus, when ice-out time arrives, the lake is especially noisy and becomes a great topic of conversation.  So, if you do nothing else as spring approaches in the coming months, take some time to observe the world changing around you, and to appreciate the phenomena of the melting lake that you chose to call home.  Because, as distant as it may seem, the ice will melt, and the earth will come alive again: “[the lake] has its law to which it thunders obedience when it should as surely as the buds expand in the spring.  The earth is all alive and covered with papillae.  The largest pond is as sensitive to atmospheric changes as the globule of mercury in its tube” (Thoreau, Walden).  No matter what day the ice officially dissolves, it’s an event worth speculating about.
 

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