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Canal wildlife. It has been almost 105 years since boat
horns sounded on the Delaware and Hudson Canal, but fragments of the old ditch
linger in unlikely places.
In a few spots, the canal bed collects temporary pools of
rainwater, which attract turtles and sometimes a muskrat or two, probably from
the nearby river. I’ve also observed mallard ducks threading passages hindered
by brambles and human rubbish.
Despite the neglect and blight, hidden niches on the D&H
canal retain a strange charm. The juxtaposition of crumbling masonry with
rusted stoves and bedsprings, and the habit of living things to make use
of these habitats, draws me to visit every spring.
With so much rural land in Wayne County, it’s odd to
discover the first turtles and hear the “quacks” of early wood frogs in a
ruined canal. It’s odder still, I guess, that I’m lured to the place spring
after spring.
—Ed Wesely
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