ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AS INDICATED IN A SEDIMENT CORE FROM FISHHOLE POND, NORTHERN NY

Fishhole Pond is located in Franklin County, in the northern part of the Adirondack Park, NY. The pond is part of the Sable Highlands Conservation Easement Lands and is currently used as a recreational area. We collected a sediment core from Fishhole Pond to assess recent environmental change in the area. The core was obtained in August 2014 using a modified Livingstone corer and from two canoes as a platform. Two overlapping drives were collected from a depth range of 0.5-1.45m. We used a variety of techniques, including LOI (loss on ignition), magnetic susceptibility, and examination of the core itself. Both drives were examined and found to contain a range of grain sizes, including coarse sand layers, and fragments of woody plants. The existence of coarse sediment may indicate large flooding events. It may also be possible that Fishhole Pond, which occupies a portion of a valley floor, may have been more of a riverine system prior to local human alterations to this hydraulic system.