|
|
The
Care and Feeding of Nature
|
|
We have 4+ acres that were severely neglected when we bought the place. It has taken a lot of work to make it usable. It was overgrown with weeds, trees were crushed or crushing each other, no space between them for them to grow properly. The place was choking on itself. We have had to clear out the dead trees, removing them from entanglement with good healthy live ones. We have had to cut down older trees that are almost dead, in order to allow the younger trees to grow. We see where younger trees have stunted growth because of overcrowding. We will have to replace trees with younger stock so that there will be trees here in the future. We have learned selective cutting since we have been here. There is a river running on the back end of the property. It is a public access river, which means people can use the river, but it is bordered by private property. This means little to people. If they can access it, they use it. We have signs posted now, to keep the trash dumpers off the land. We have to clean out the river bank each season because of the trash dumped by those using the river. Soda bottles, worm containers, chip bags all collect at the river bank and when the river flows high, end up on the back end of our property. We are now park rangers who's duty it is to clean up after the visitors have gone. This year the park service decided to clean out the dam upriver. This has resulted in repeated flooding of the area nearest the river. We have ended up not only with the usual garbage, but additional debris and damage to the river bank and loss of some trees on the bank itself. Again, we find that we have to cleanup, and need to make additional plantings to preserve the bank and replace the lost trees. All beyond our control. But within our ability to repair, to some extent. We have deer and turkey who wander across the land. We keep our place as a refuge for them. But the neighbors see nothing wrong with popping something off from their back porch. Or running their ATV's in and out of the breeding areas. We will maintain our property as we can. We have found trash dumps that need to be cleaned out, where people before us have burned their trash rather than having it removed. We have recycled the old wood into firewood for heating our home. We are replanting when we can. But this is a lot of work. Being a steward of the land means being responsible for what you have, and putting some sweat and blood into the work. I find myself talking to the neighbors in hopes that they see the damage that is being done by their neglect. Not exactly a winning battle. They own their land; they will do what they want. The neighbor next door allowed a logging company to cut down cherry trees up near our property for a price just last week. The other trees that are damaged in the process didn't seem to mean much to the neighbor. He got a good price for the trees. As for the waste, because the lumber company left the limbs and broke some trees, we have permission to cut and use for firewood whatever is next to our property. Nice of him, really, so I'm not going to complain. Rather than let it go to waste. But it's a shame for these trees to be wasted so. Lumber companies want straight tall trees that will yield the most board feet, not limbs or broken trees or crooked trees. But that particular area, where the trees were cut down, was where the deer found shelter in the winter from the snow. And the turkey nests there. It's going to be a few trees short this year, I wonder if the animals will return. We find ourselves being ecologists, worried about the balance in a natural habitat. Over the next few years we will try to manage our property, our tiny 4+ acres, as best as we can. Replace the old growth with some young trees to eventually take their places. Try to save as many trees as we can on our property and maintain the natural balance as well as we can. But we will also use our property. No sense in having it if you can't enjoy it. We are not going to keep a "forever wild" place. It will be a place where you can walk and enjoy it, as well as a preserve of nature. A balance, if you will, of nature and human usage. This morning, there is a very angry robin on my back porch. Some of the robin nests were raided this weekend by crows. The eggs were snatched, and there appears to be some birds looking a bit shocked. We had been watching the nests and were witness to the crow raids. Our robin in the wreath is fine, but the robin on my back porch I think was nesting in one of the raided nests. It is now fighting with it's reflection in the door window. It has been there for hours now, banging itself up against the window. I've tried to discourage him, but he seems bent on beating up his reflection, no matter how he gets hurt. While we attempt to achieve a balance, sometimes even nature takes a quirky change and no matter what we do, we have no power over the outcome. I've had birds bang into windows, fall stunned on the ground, and revive some time later. But this is something we can not control. When we live so close to nature, we find sometimes we have an effect on it, without meaning to. I figure this poor bird will either end up exhausted and go away, or hurt himself seriously. For all that we talk, when it comes to walking the walk, it is much more difficult that we imagine. While it's nice to "leave things as it is", we encounter much intervention that we had not expected, and need to balance this out in some way in order for it to work. A lesson learned from Mother, nothing is as easy as it seems. But She does reward you with beauty for all the hard work you put into it. Our little 4+ acres is almost a place of meditation now, and the circle area is very conductive to ritual. Well worth all the effort we have put into it over the last two years. But we have a long way to go and so much more to learn. |
|
