ROCHESTER — On Friday, June 30 a group of children gathered at the bank of Snow’s Pond in Rochester, but they weren’t there to play — they were there to learn. 

“Can anybody guess how old this pond is?” asked Snow’s Pond Association Member Michelle Kirby.

The pond isn’t 23, 44, 100, 1,000 or even 2,000-years-old, like some children guessed. 

“It’s 12,000 years old,” said Kirby. “It was formed by a glacier that came and plopped itself here and then melted.”

Because it was formed by a glacier, it has no streams that feed in or out, explained Kirby. This means that “what goes in the pond, stays in the pond.”

The Snow’s Pond Association was founded in 2018 to monitor the health of Snow’s Pond and other bodies of water in Rochester. 

“I grew up coming to Snow’s Pond and many of the residents that live here have noticed a change over the years,” said Kirby. “[The water has] gotten less clear … so we created the association” made up of 16 of the pond’s abutters.

The association has been collecting water samples, monitoring water clarity and collecting other data on the pond and sending it to a laboratory at the University of Rhode Island.

According to Kirby,  the Snow’s Pond Association hopes to work more closely with the Town of Rochester and the Conservation Commission to secure grants to further the association’s efforts to maintain the health of  Rochester’s bodies of water. 

Kirby also hopes that by running educational programs like this one, children could be inspired to protect local bodies of water. 

Friday’s workshop was held in collaboration with the Plumb Library to celebrate the beginning of Lakes Appreciation Month, which is held in July. 

“Why is it important to protect our pond?” Kirby asked the group of children. 

“To help critters,” answered six-year-old Jackson. 

Swimming around Snow’s Pond in Rochester are around 40 invertebrates, said ecologist Mindy LaBranche, who led the children in searching for all manner of aquatic creatures to help demonstrate the biodiversity of local ponds. 

The kids, equipped with nets, waded through the knee-high water and scooped up aquatic plants and mud hoping to find animals living within. 

Aside from small fish swimming just out of reach of kids’ nets, only insects like water striders, damselflies, leeches and caddisfly larva made an appearance. 

According to Plumb Library Assistant for Youth Services Lisa Fuller, kids who want to do their own outdoor science activities can check out a “Pond Life Moby Backpack” from the Plumb Library. 

“Moby” stands for “my own backyard,” explained Fuller, and the backpack contains books and tools for kids to learn about pond ecology.

The Snow’s Pond Association uses their own tools like a Secchi disk, a device that measures water clarity.

“If we don't protect [the pond, it] can get sick. And when the pond gets sick you can't drink the water, you can't swim in the water,” said Kirby to the children. “So it's very important to keep the ponds healthy that we have here in Rochester and all around.”