South Boundary Cut

Walk in the Woods from the SW Gate on Chautauqua, just above the old trash station. There has been some recent (this week?) power line right-of-way clearing of a 30 foot wide swath, 400 m long, all the way to the culvert where the water drains south from the Woods. This was a thick border of 10 foot high small diameter willow, cottonwoods and green ash with tall Johnson grass and sedge beneath. It was rich, often wet, edge habitat for chickadees, juncos and other passerines. The crews used a D299 rubber tracked Cat with a powerful shredder on the front, and chewed everything down into a flattened fibrous strip between the N and S fence lines. The cleared strip is festooned with a thousand plastic bags newly exposed. I was walking there at sunset and the birds were quite active. I watched a (probably wild) black cat cross under the fence and go north into the Woods. The open SW Woods are now the edge.. no thick brushy habitat providing shelter or a buffer.. just open woods.. or in some sections there is a low hedge of Japanese honeysuckle along the old fence line. I walked the shredded area back and forth a couple of times, intrigued to get a first look at the Woods edge from a new angle; but sad to lose that good habitat.

Saturday morning the East Pond was looking suddenly reddish and turbid, as if some animal like a turtle or a crayfish population had moved in and was going around stirring the bottom sediment. The water is 0.44 foot deep. 

Along several trails, including the southern end of the N-S trail, foraging animals have been noticeable 'bulldozing' their way around through the fallen leaves. Leaving behind a funny pattern of their foraging.. maybe a turtle, or skunk or armadillo or raccoon.

Recently, I have been seeing a group of 3-5 white-tailed deer in the western Woods, in the thick stands of green ash.

This past week I made a tentative new Y trail extending from the big tree grove and East Pond at the NE end and the northern, leaning big poplar at the NW end, past the fallen giant cottonwood to the reclining elm and south to the fumaroles on the SW Trail. The trail(s) go through the thickest of the small diameter ash stands and, on the west, skirt the sedge wetland. We'll see if the trail makes sense enough to keep as is and keep clear.. or if it should be altered.