- Pond (Wikipedia)
A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression, either naturally or artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing the two, although defining a pond to be less than 5 hectares (12 acres) in area, less than 5 metres (16 ft) in depth and with less than 30% of its area covered by emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing the ecology of ponds from those of lakes and wetlands. Ponds can be created by a wide variety of natural processes (e.g. on floodplains as cutoff river channels, by glacial processes, by peatland formation, in coastal dune systems, by beavers), or they can simply be isolated depressions (such as a kettle hole, vernal pool, prairie pothole, or simply natural undulations in undrained land) filled by runoff, groundwater, or precipitation, or all three of these. They can be further divided into four zones: vegetation zone, open water, bottom mud and surface film. The size and depth of ponds often varies greatly with the time of year; many ponds are produced by spring flooding from rivers. Ponds are usually freshwater but may be brackish in nature. Saltwater pools, with a direct connection to the sea to maintain full salinity, may sometimes be called ‘ponds’ but these are normally regarded as part of the marine environment. They do not support fresh or brackish water-based organisms, and are rather tidal pools or lagoons.
- Lower East Fork Lewis River Greenway Hike (OregonHikers.org)
The Lower East Fork River Greenway is a corridor of county land on the East Fork between Daybreak Park and La Center. The corridor is undeveloped except for a gated maintenance road that runs its length. The road is mowed for the convenience of hikers, birdwatchers, and equestrians once the flooded sections have dried up in late spring. Over the last three decades, there has been much removal of invasive species and reintroduction of native plants. In 2025, an enhancement project was dealing with filling in gravel mining pits in the river floodplain and restoring salmon habitat.