Thanksgiving and New South Trails

Day before Thanksgiving I joined Tom, Chenmei, George, Wendy, James and Sarah for a walk. We entered the NE Gate and walked along most of the trails of the Woods. Encountered one group of five deer in the dense, small diameter green ash.. and another 2 or 3 deer later.

Tom had a good idea about signage in the Woods.. opening beer cans and writing on soft metal interior with ball point pin. Ink doesn't last but the indentation of the metal does.
Label each junction with a number and the names of the trails crossing.

Along the South Boundary trail someone had wrenched Carpenter's G0 post out of the ground (with great effort). I returned it to the same hole and pounded it back in place with a sledge hammer today.

Today, the day after Thanksgiving, along the South Boundary Trail I encountered two of the same dogs by the big hill of bulldozed soil/ debris. The small black dog ran off NW into the Woods running up the drainage toward the Beaver Dam.

In the Woods, all the leaves are down.. a nice crunchy layer underfoot. Should do some litter bags. Wonder which species of tree's leaves decay fastest or slowest, contain the most nitrogen per weight, the most toxins or tannins per weight. Could test green ash, walnut, pecan.

Cut a new south trail from Barney Jct. running east and then southeast to the service road; arriving there a hundred yards west of the South Creek Trail. Applied small dots of blue paint to trees with yellow and black stripe flagging.. and a few pink dots under the blue at the south end of the trail.

The new trail passes by two parallel lines of green ash trees that suggest the edges of an old farm road, cutting through the top of the tall ragweed wet area. (Wonder if this is visible in old satellite photos?) Lots of scars on boles from beaver damage. Wonder if these eventually heal with little pathology to tree.. or if they are an infection court for fungi. Could do a study on healing of trees with beaver scars that either do or do not reach the ground.

Further north in the Woods two parallel rows of limby cedars suggest another old road, now gone. Any association of greenbrier or other species with the old cedar rows? Any change in soil pH still present beneath the old dead cedars?