Bulldozers and the Woods

Monday evening 26 April I went for a walk in the flooded Woods entering via the SW gate. After recent rains this month (1.5 inches on the 17th and 18th and 0.5 inches on the 23rd) the water had returned to flood the southwestern quarter.. then retreated somewhat, returned again and now seemed to be rapidly retreating (although it was still covering large areas from 150 meters northeast up the trail to where the first patches of sedge grow, and on east of there along the main trail and drainage. It seemed like the most recent rapid retreat of the water was more related to strong all day winds, than to days without rain. Monday evening the water had retreated again to 50-70 feet west of the dam..nothing flowing through.

Exiting the Woods at G zero post, I walked along the service road westward towards the old trash station. Heavy equipment had recently flattened or cleared a swath along the south side of the Woods plowing over willows and brush. (For some unknown reason the machine operator had also gone south along the drainage from the Woods clearing a swath of the willows for 100 feet south of the culvert.)

Along the northern edge of the east west service road, workers had dug into place the standard black nylon (?) ca. 0.7 m tall erosion fence in preparation for active earth moving, to stop rains from washing clay into the Woods. I walked west along this and thought about how the new erosion fence would stop movement of snakes, turtles, frogs, salamanders, lizards, small mammals, opossums, mice, rabbits, voles etc. It might even put off deer and larger animals.

Parked just east of the northeast corner of the old trash station there were two of the largest dump trucks I have seen this year - colossal, and a similar scale earth mover, equally enormous.. and an assortment of smaller bulldozers and earth movers. The work there is set to begin. I will watch the impact on the Woods. Deer will not cross that area any more. The animal highways and corridors across the south central boundary of the Woods are closed by the new fence.