The photo above from December 1996 shows a number of large, old growth pitch pine and red pine trees in the middle section of Songo Beach at Sebago Lake State Park. With the photos below we can track the fate of each of these trees from 1996 to the present.
This is the same group of trees in spring 1997.
View from the opposite direction, spring 1997.
Take a last look at Tree D, seen here in spring 1998.
This is Tree D -- one year later -- in July 1999.
This man is lying just in front of Tree C. The stump of Tree D is behind him.
By May 2000, Sebago Lake Park staff had dragged the enormous stump of Tree D up into the woods for subsequent removal and disposal.
Late summer, 2005. Tree B is still alive.
July, 2007. Tree B is now just a stump.
The trees with red exes have all died from root suffocation and erosion, have fallen down and have been cut up and hauled away by Sebago Lake Park staff since 2000.
Looking back to 1996 we can see that only one tree -- Tree A -- has not been killed by beach erosion and root drowning at Songo Beach at Sebago Lake State Park.
So what can we conclude from this 11-year photo series ?
The conclusion I draw (Douglas Watts) is that without this photo sequence, this destruction would not be noticed. It happened too slowly, over too many years. Memories fade. Recollections become uncertain. Things seem to "change" but we can't put our finger on them; or prove them if a skeptic puts us on the spot.
Physics requires that when the average annual level of a body of water is increased, it must develop a new equilibrium with its shoreline. This applies to lakes, oceans, coves, bays, ponds and swamps -- wherever and whenever water laps against an erodable shore.
This sequence of photos clearly shows the landward advance of Sebago Lake since 1996 and the landward retreat of the shore of Sebago Lake since 1996. This advance is marked by the killing of large pitch pine and red pine trees that have stood at the top of Songo Beach since the mid-1800s.
This is why the sequence of photos here is so important. It shows exactly how and when the forested front of Songo Beach was gradually and systematically killed, tree by tree by tree. No other mechanism can explain this change except what the laws of physics requires.
NEXT