It may be no coincidence that our green jelly blob
surfaced in Pinkham Notch's beaver pond. The
Ophyridium does well in nutrient-rich, fertile waters, where it can take in and recycle nitrogen from the pond's bacteria and carbon from the photosynthesizing algae. It blooms where aquatic plant life is prolific, and one place where that's so is the beaver pond. When the beaver dams up a pond to bring the elements of its aquatic habitat closer to it, it creates a tightly engineered ecosystem with marshy edges and silted bottoms that becomes a home for many other water and land species.
Visit Pinkham Notch's Lost Pond to see how active the beaver family is. This gnawed white birch is in the middle of the trail. Stop there and look directly across the pond and you will see where the trunk and all the tree's branches are now.