Pond Life : Reflections

You can draw them on a map, or stop time for a moment in a photo, but the ponds of St. Martin are ever-changing. Shorelines shift and water rises up and down. Mudflats expand as water drops during the dry season and grasses race to cover the new ground. People fill in the ponds—a bit at a time from the edges, or sometimes all at once. The ponds change with regular cycles, like the wet and dry seasons. More unusual events also impact them: drought, flooding and hurricanes. They are perhaps the most dynamic wild places on the island. Even when they reflect the hills and sky during a windless moment, ponds are never truly still.